The World of Pokemon
by MSkitty543921
Summary: Acerous has a problem. So who does he turn to? David Thomas, the dimension travelers, and Dust Nekomis, an average human girl. Or is she? Worked on together by Phsychicshipping and MSkitty
1. Chapter 1

Summary: Acerous, the pokemon who created the pokemon world, finds himself having to choose two authors from 'our world'. Those two lucky authors happen to be the teen aurthor's of "Dimension Travelers: Pokemon World" and "The Twin of Ash,"

Written by: Psychicshipping and MSkitty543921

The World of Pokemon !-DIV {margin:0px;}-

**Hello everybody! This is psychicshipping and since I have been placed in charge for this part of the chapter it's my duty to inform you of the circumstances. One day MSkitty543921 contacted me with an idea for a story. Having no reason not to work together I agreed. For my own reasons this story takes place after my story dimention travelers 1: pokemon world but before dimention travelers 2. So this story will contain spoilers for my other story. You have been warned. **

Arceus' POV

I had just finished eating lunch when a mew burst in shouting about something.

[Calm down.] I told the over excited pokemon and he calmed down just enough to tell me that something was threatening the Ash Ketchum of his dimension. As I obtained more details I grew more and more worried. As much as I hated to admit it there was only one person who could possibly save Ash, but the mew suggested someone as back up. With any luck they will annoy each other to no ends. So with that I acted.

David's POV

It had only been a month since I returned home but already I was bored out of my mind. School was a joke. Life with my family had not improved. Computer games were all too easy to analyze and win. I could read so fast that even books with 700 pages took no longer than an hour to read. The only things that kept me sane were May, pokemon training, Mewtwo and I playing video games, and sparing with lucario with my keyblade and his bone rush. In short I was more than ready to get back to some adventure. Suddenly my wish was granted in the form of a black hole swallowing me up. For a second I thought the heartless had got me but then I heard a familiar laughing.

"You have about five seconds to explain why you scared me out of my wits!" I threatened

[As much as I wish this were just some joke I decided to pull it isn't. Ash's life is on the line.] Arceus informed me

"WHAT? THEN WHY ARE WE JUST STANDING HERE?" I shouted

[Because he is not the Ash Ketchum you know. But from another dimension. I only brough you here to warn you of this fact.] The alpha pokemon replied and with that I was off again.

Mina/Dust POV

In a state, far away from David's location, a girl walked from school. She had long flowing blond hair and bottle green eyes.

"Hey, Mina." her best friend, red head, blue eyed, Jenny.

"Hey, Jen." I smiled.

"Do you want to go catch a movie?" Jen asked.

"Actually, I think I'll just head on home. I've been feeling a little sick." I lied.

"Well, don'y start coughing on me." Jen said, wrinking her nose. "I don't want to be sick to."

"K, Jen." I smiled and turned, walking away. Jenny made be my best friend, but I really don't feel like her talking about someone just because they were glamous.

After the five minute walk, I finally made it home.

"Hey, sweetheart. You're home early." her mom said.

"Yeah, just tired. I guess I'll go to bed. Call me for dinner." I said and bounced up the stairs.

"Hey, Meena." my four year old brown haired, brown eyed brother said.

"Hey, squirt." I said sweetly and ruffled his hair. Dylan giggled with innocence only a four year old boy could have. "Go take scotty down stairs for me, won't you?" I asked, talking about our brown spotted white dog.

"Okay, Meena." Dylan said and picked the puppy up before climbing down the stairs awkardly.

With that, I walked into my room and locked my door. I laid back on my bed and closed my eyes after turning on my steroe and letting the soft music shoote me.

I didn't hear the soft hum of something else entering my room without the use of a door or window.

"Dust." a voice whispered to me in the airless room. I sat up. My nickname was Dust but no one's called me it since I was ten when I so selfesly dumped my best friend for Jen, now I was regretting it. I may have been popular, but it wasn't the greatest thing.

A weird black looking portal stood in the center of my room.

"What?" I asked dumbly.

"Dust, come. You are needed." the voice said.

"Needed?" I asked. Before I knew what I had done, I slowly stretched a hand out to the portal and as the tip of my finger touched the surface, I felt myself being pulled in, my mouth opened with a silent scream.

"Hello, Dust." the creature said in the weird room. It was a pokemon. I knew that for sure. Arcueus.

"Arcues? What am I doing here? What are you doing here? You're not suppose to exist?" I asked, my mind flooding with questions through my shock.

"I have brought you here because you are needed in the pokemon world." Arceus explained.

"Pokemon world?" I questioned.

"Yes, in another dimention where pokemon are real. An evil man wants to destroy Ash. You must travel there to protect him." Arceus explained.

"But how can I do that? I never protected anything in my life." I protested.

"You will learn that you don't always have to deal with these things alone." Arceus said. "On your journey, you'll meet a boy from you're world named David who will assist you. I have already sent him off just a few minutes before attending to you. Also, you're pokemon, I'm sure, will be strong with enough training to protect you and the friends you make. Now, you have two choices. You can return to you're life as if nothing happened and you will forget about this meeting, or you can go to the pokemon world and insist David, also protecting Ash from an early death."

"Hmm." I thought. "I can't just abandon Ash, even if I don't personally know him but that'll make me a bad person. If I know someone's in danger, I should help and besides, I bet this David person can't do this alone. What the heck, sign me up!"

"Then go through the portal." Arceus said, nodding to the portal I hadn't noticed before.

"Wish me luck." I gulped and with that, I stepped through the portal.


	2. Chapter 2

!-DIV {margin:0px;}- The world of pokemon

**Welcome to chapter 2! I have been placed in charge of the first half of the chapter again. This chapter is where David and Dust meet and then meet up with Ash. There is still a great air of mystery. Copyright of Psychicshipping and Mskitty543921.**

David's POV

I ended up in an old shack wondering why was going on when a girl with black hair appeared on the bed. I could tell she was from my home dimension and remembering how tiring it was when I had first traveled I would have let her rest but time was of the essence. So whipping out the old air horn, I woke her up.

"AHHHHHH!" The horn had the desired affect and she was wide awake. While she was breathing into a brown paper bag I checked my pokeballs and released pikablue.

"I suppose you don't know what's going on?" Pikablue asked and I just shrugged. Arceus had left me in the dark.

"What the heck is going on? One minute I'm talking to Arceus, who isn't even supposed to exist, and the next I'm being scared peeless by some guy with a blow horn! AND HOW ARE YOU SO CALM?" I felt a bit sorry for the kid, this was all new to her and I didn't even know what was going on.

"Let's just say this isn't my first time around the block. Anyway What's your name?" I inquired

"M...I mean Dust." She replied but before we could continue I sensed something outside. So I rushed out and Dust followed. Sure enough a few dozen shadows appeared.

"WHAT ARE THOSE? MUTANT BUNNIES?" Dust screamed but I calmly summoned one of my favorite keyblades, trainer's strength fighting type, and dispatched the lot. Naturally after she calmed down, Dust pressed me for information. So I explained that I was a keyblade warrior and that those things were heartless.

"So did Arceus tell you anything? Cause he told me squat." I informed Dust

"He told me that a kid named Ash was in trouble a bad man." She told me and that put me no closer to an answer then before.

"Typical of Arceus, he has two agendas, one is to save Ash and the other is to make my life as hard as possible." I mumbled

"You can't mean that surely?" Dust asked

"I mean it. Arceus once went back in time and destroyed some villages just to make my life a whole lot harder. But that's beside the point, 'bad man' is so vague. It could be Sephiroth or Xemnas or anyone." I remarked

"Who or who?" I clearly need to do some major explaining but first we had to find Ash because I didn't want to tell the story twice.

Dust POV:

"We have to get to Viridian City." the boy said. "I'm pretty sure that's where Ash is now."

"Second episode or for the badge?" I asked.

"How should I know that?" he asked.

"Fine." I pouted. "But you never told me you're name."

"Oh, right. I'm David."

"Nice to meet you." I smiled and we began our walk to viridian city.

A few minute's later, "Did you hear that?" I asked.

"Here what?" David asked.

"It sounds like...wimpering." I said, concentrationg.

"Are you sure you're not just hearing things?" David asked.

"Of course not. Now shush and let me listen." I snapped.

"Fine." he grumbled.

"This way." I said and ran into the bushes.

"Dust! We don't have time for this!" I heard David yell but my attention was on something else.

"David! Come quick!" I screamed.

"What! What is it!" David yelled, rushing into the bushes. The sight that laid before us was gruesome. It was an umbreon. An umbreon who was bleeding all over and gasping for breath.

"It looks like the 'bad man' may have got him." David gasped.

"Now, we really do have to get to viridian." I said, and with surprising strength I didn't know I processed, lifted the umbron onto my back, ignoring the blood starting to soak through my clothes.

"Come on, David!" I yelled over my shoulder as I when. David seemd to snap what ever trance he was in and followed after me.

It wasn't soon after when we came across viridian city where Officer Jenny was talking about pokemon thieves. So, this was the second episode.

We raced through the streets, ignoring the people's staring and gasp and we finally raced into the pokecentre.

"Nurse Joy!" we yelled.

"What is going on?" Nurse Joy asked, coming out of the back.

"Please, you have to help her!" I cried, letting her see umbreon.

"Oh no!" Nurse Joy gasped and raced to her computer. "We need a stretcher for a dark pokemon quickly."

A familar pink colored pokemon came out pushing a stretcher and hoisted umbreon off of my back and onto the stretcher.

"Umreon." the pokemon said, looking into my eyes as he was taken into the back room.

"Who are you? What do you two think you were doing letting you're pokemon into that condition?" Nurse Joy asked.

"Hey, don't blame us." David insisted. I had forgotten about him.

"He's not our pokemon. I'm not even a trainer, at least not yet. But you have to hurry and help him. We just found him in the forest like that." I cried.

"I'll do my best." Nurse Joy said and disappeared into the back room.

"Hey, maybe you should clean up." David suggested.

"Yeah, maybe I should." I said, wiping my sleeve across my face and walked into the bathroom. I took one look in the mirror and screamed.

"What's wrong!" David yelled, running in. I screamed again and started to throw whatever I could at him. After all, this was the girls' bathroom.

"Ow, ow, ow." David kept saying everytime he was hit before finally running out. I cleaned my face off and walked out.

"Now tell me, why'd you scream?" David asked.

"I screamed because a maniac, perverted boy, ran into the girl's bathroom." I snapped, putting my hands on my hips.

"I mean before that." David sighed. "And I'm not perverted."

"Because, when I woke up this morning, my hair was blond and my eyes were green." I explained. "Now, my hair is black and my eyes are brown."

"Must be a side effect of coming into this world." David said.

"But nothing happened to you, did it?" I asked.

"No, I'm good." David said.

"Do you think umbron will be okay?" I asked but someone else answered.

"Yes, he will be." Nurse Joy said, walking up behind me.

"He will?" I asked urgent.

"He suffered some bruises but wasn't his so it looked like he put up a good fight. You can be free to see him whenever you want." Nurse Joy said. "And when you come back out, I'll have something for you."

"Alright." I said. "David?"

"I'll stay here and look out for Ash." he told me.

"Okay." I nodded and walked into umbreon's room.

"Umbreon." he said, as soon as I walked in.

"Hey, boy. I hear you're doing better." I said. Umbreon nodded. "I guess that means you're be going wherever you came from when they let you out."

He shook his head.

"You're not?" I asked and he licked my hand gently. "You want to come with me?"

He nodded.

"Alright, my first pokemon." I squealed, winking and hugging him around his neck. He made a sound that sounded like a laugh. "Are you laughing at me?" I teashed.

Then we heard screaming and we ran out.

"What happened?" I asked David.

"Misty showed up." David answered.

"Aw." I said, knowing everything was ok now.

"I don't want any of your lame excuses kid! I just want a new bike right now!" Misty yelled.

"Excuse me." I said, drawing their attention. "But you can't expect a ten year old boy to just be able to go out and by you a new bike. They are way to expensive."

"Well..." Misty stuttered.

"It's my pikachu..." Ash said. "My pikachu's not too good."

"Huh? Is it series?" Misty asked.

"I think so, and there's nothing I can do to help now." Ash sighed depressed.

"Don't worry, Ash. Pikachu will be fine." I said. "My name's Dust and this is David and U...Midnight,"

"How do you know he'll be alright?" Ash asked.

"Let's just say, I have my ways." I winked mysteriously and Nurse Joy walked out, rolling pikachu on a stretcher with her and chansey following behind. Ash ran over and asked pikachu, who had a bandage on his forhead if he was alright. Nurse Joy said pikachu was just resting and Misty said it was thanks to the pokecentre. Ash thanked Nurse Joy.

"Now, your pokemon need a good rest in the recover room. You should go with it, Ash." Nurse Joy said. "Dust. I have something for you."

"What is it?" I asked and Nurse Joy handed me something. It was a pokedex and pokeballs!

"I talked to Professor Oak and he sent these over so you can begin as a new trainer." Nurse Joy explained.

"Wow, thank you Nurse Joy!" I said excited. My first pokemon and a pokedex already. Wow.

"Your attention please, the viridian city radar system has detencted an air craft belonging to a gang of pokemon thieves!" Officer Jenny said on the inner com. "If you have a pokemon in your possession, excersice extream caution."

"Hey!" I yelled as two pokeballs crashed into the room.

"Pikablue, battle stance!" David yelled.

"Pikachu." Pikablue said.

"Go get 'em, Midnight!" I yelled and Midnight took his own battle stance, a crouched position in front of us.

"What are...who are they?" Ash asked as the koffing pokemon used smog attack.

"I knew I never liked that attack." I coughed.

"Don't be frightened, little children." a female voice said, I could just tell she was smirking.

"Allow us to introduce ourselves." a male voice said.

"To protect the world from devistation."

"To unite all peoples within our nation."

"To denounce the evils of truth and love."

"To exstend our reach to the stars above."

"Jessie."

"James."

"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light."

"Surrender now or prepare to fight."

"Meowth, that's right."

"It's weirder seeing that in person." I commented.

"So true." David agreed.

"What are they talking about?" Ash asked.

"No one knows." Me and David said.

"They just don't get it, do they?" Jessie asked.

"How can we? You never made since." David said.

"I think they just enjoy the spotlight." I said.

"We're here for the pokemon." James said.

"You can't have them!" Ash cried. "And your not getting pikachu!"

"Pikachu?" Jessie asked. "We're not intrested in your precious electric rat." Pikablue started to spark angrily and Midnight growled. He did not like his new friends to be talked about in such away.

"We only care about rare and powerful pokemon." James said.

"Not all pokemon have to be rare to be powerful." I said.

"And you're wasting your time." Nurse Joy said. "This is a center for weak and injured pokemon."

"Well, that may be so, but I wouldn't be all suprised if we find a few little pokemon gems amoug the junk." Jessie smirked.

"No pokemon are junk." David growled.

"Your really starting to bug me." Ash said.

"That goes double for me." David said.

"Triple for me to." I said.

"Isn't that cute." James cooed.

"The boys are bugged." Jessie smirked.

"Do I look like a boy!" I yelled.

"Um..." Team Rocket said and I growled.

"Meowth, how about we squash them." Meowth sneered

"Koffing, go!"

"Ekans, you to!"

"Pikablue, use thundershock on ekans!" David yelled.

"Midnight, use shadow ball on koffing!" I commended.

"This way!" David yelled as a computer crashed and we ran into a back room with the others.

"Hey, the lights!" Misty cried as the lights shut off.

"They must have cut the power!" Nurse Joy said, oddly calm. "But we have our own pikapower."

"Pikapower?" David asked. "Um, you can let go of me now, Dust."

"Oh right. Sorry." I apologized, letting go of his arm. "I have issues with the dark."

"Afraid of the dark?" he smirked.

"I am not!" I yelled angrily. "I just don't like the dark when I know something is out there! Like Team Rocket right now, although I know they can't do much."

The lights came back on with a flash to reveal all the pikachu's running on a treadmill thing, giving the hospital power.

"Wow, so cute." Misty and I squealed.

"Girls." David mumbled.

"What was that?" I snapped.

"Nothing." he said nervously.

"We have to save those pokeballs!" Nurse Joy yelled and turned to the computer. "This is the Viridian City pokemon center. We have am emergency situation, transporting pokeballs!"

The computer spoke, "This is the Pewter City pokemon center, ready to recieve pokeballs." The balls were placed one by one into the transporting machine and disappeared. I gasped as the door blue off the henges.

"Get those pokeballs!" Nurse Joy yelled.

"Right." Ash said, holding onto a pokeball.

"What do you think you're doing!" I yelled.

"This is war!" Misty yelled. "Don't just hold them, throw them!"

"Alright." Ash said nervously. "Pokeball, go!" A pidgey appeared in the red light.

"Cool, I want a pidgey someday and maybe It'll evolve into Pidgeot." I did a fan girl squeal.

"That thing can't beat us." Jessie said when Pidgey fainted from fright.

"We still have Midnight and Pikablue as back up." David said but Ash was to busy picking up another pokemon but nothing came out. I huffed.

"We're never gonna eat them that way!" Misty yelled.

"Some of the pokeballs are empty." Nurse Joy said.

"Now she tells us." David mumbled.

"This one feels like a real winner," Ash said. "Pokeball, go!" he threw it and a rattata came out.

He ran at the sight of ekens.

"Man, who trained these pokemon?" I asked.

"I guess I'm going to have to take this into my own hands." Misty said, grabbing her pokebal from her bag. "You grab pikachu and get out of here, I'll take care of these three clowns."

"I'll help you." I said, standing up to plate.

"That's pretty big talk from such little girls." Jessie said.

"Little doesn't nessassary mean weak." I said.

"And at least she was right about the pretty part." Misty smirked.

"That's right." I smiled. I had a feeling me and Misty would get along great.

"The girls thinks she's pretty." James scoffed.

"I think she's pretty to." Jessie said.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yes, pretty pathetic." she smirked. I growled deeply.

"Pokeball, go!" Misty yelled, letting a goldeen out who flapped useless on the floor.

"Um...," I said. "Midnight, go get 'em!"

"Umbreon!" he said, getting ready for an attack to be called.

"Goldeen, return." Misty called.

"That's their best shot?" Jessie asked.

"You still haven't seen mine." I said. "Midnight, think you can bite ekens?"

"Umbreon!" he nodded and flung himself forward. Ekens cried out as his tail was bit roughly.

"Shake him off, ekens!" Jessie commanded and ekens did so.

"You know as well as I do that water pokemon can't battle on land." Misty stated.

"Not really." David said. "There's some water pokemon that can battle on land."

"Yeah, like squirtle, totodile, midkip, piplup, and oshawatt." I said.

"Huh?" Ash asked.

"Those are the five water pokemon for five different regions." I said.

"Show off." David said. I stuck my tongue out at him, It was childish but no one said I was grown up.

With that, Ash ran, pushing pikachu on the stretcher.

"Run, Ash!" David and I yelled when Team Rocket was close behind.

"So close." I said as Ash tripped over Misty's charred bike.

"Pika pika." pikachu said, woken up. Tons of pikachu jumped on pikachu's stretcher.

"Anyone have sunglasses?" I asked and the pikachu's electricuted the table and Ash's pikachu jumped out of the center.

"Pikachu!" Ash yelled happily. Pikachu started talking. "Pika...pikapower?" Ash asked. "You want more power..more power!"

Ash ran to the bike and started to pedal as fast as he could.

"What's he doing?" Meowth asked and I slipped on the sunglasses I had in my pocket. "Lets just say, pikachu and I are going to generate some excitement for you, Meowth!" Ash yelled.

"You to, pikablue." David said and all the pikachu's threw a powerful thundershock at team rocket.

"Oh yeah!" we all cheered.

"I don't think the trouble's over." I gulped as shadows appeared. The 'bad mans' millions. "Look out, Ash!" I yelled and dived on top of him when a powerful bolt of energy shot toward him, sending the bike flairing behind the counter. David jumped into action.

"Midnight, let's help with a shadow ball!" I yelled and Midnight shot it.

"We'll get you soon!" the shadow seemed to speak to me. I didn't notice my birthmark on my wrist just under my palm start glowing a light eerie purple.

They disappeared with a promise that'll be back.

The next morning, we were walking through Viridian Forest when Misty screamed.

"For Christmas, get me some ear plugs." I said, rubbing my ear.

"If you get me some." David said, rubbing his own ear.

"What's wrong now, Misty?" Ash asked.

"Bug over there." Misty said fearfully.

"Cool. Maybe he'll evolve into a buterfree some day." I said cheerfully.

"I'm gonna catch it." Ash said. "Caterpie, you're mine! Pokeball, go!"


	3. Viridian Forest part 1

MSKITTY HERE TO START CHAPTER 3!

Dust POV:

Ash threw his pokeball, aiming for the bug pokemon. It hit and caught. "But I thought pokemon had to be weakened before they were caught?" I asked, Midnight realized at my feet just pushed up against my leg.

"Normally, you do." David said. "But catepie was already weak."

"Oh, alright. I wonder what I can catch in this forest." I said excited. Ash started to cheer but I was still in daydream land about catching a strong team of pokemon I could be friends with. I snapped out of it when Ash grab mine and Misty's arms, swinging us around.

"Ash, I think Dust is about to be sick." David sighed. Ash finally let go of my arm and I sighed.

"Thanks, David." I said.

"No problem." David shrugged.

"You're not afraid of an itty bitty catepie. are you?" Ash teased poor Misty.

"Bugs get me all bugged out!" Misty exclaimed fearfully. "Even when their in a pokeball. Just keep it away!"

"I like bugs, even if their not in a pokeballs." Ash glared. He looked down at his pokeball. "It must be great for caterpie inside the pokeball, all cute and comfortable inside here, I love my new pokemon."

"Hey, maybe I'll catch a catepie one day." I smiled. "It could evolve into butterfree!" I squealed, my inner girl coming out.

"Does that mean?" Misty asked.

"Does what mean?" I asked, snapping out of it. I was a one hundred percent dreamer in this world. I really needed to stay in with the conversations so I don't miss anything.

"Just their bug argument." David said.

"Oh." I nodded. Ash threw out his pokemon, letting catepie come on out. When Ash put his arm out, asking catepie to climb on up, catepie turned and headed at a fast pace way past me, David, Pikablue, and Midnight and straight for...Misty!

"Hey Misty, who would have thought. He likes you." David joked.

"Ironic, right?" I asked. "Catepie takes a liking to the one with a fear of bugs."

"Get this disgusting thing away from me!" Misty cried from her knees. Catepie looked down upset.

"He's so sad." I said softly. Midnight butted his head against catepie's softly, trying to comfort the small bug. "Please..." Misty whimpered. "Don't come any closer!" she exclaimed and scooted backwards until she hit a tree a few yards away.

(It's alright. Misty just doesn't understand you, that's all.) Midnight said.

(Yeah, she doesn't like any bugs.) Pikachu said. Pikablue scampered down to them.

(But she smells so nice) Catepie pouted.

"I know, you be friends with that creep bug, and I'll be Midnight and pikachu." Misty smiled. She picked pikachu up and scratched Midnight with cautious fingers.

"Pikachu only likes me. and shocks anybody else." Ash smirked, turning his head. He obviously thought Misty would be getting shocked. I couldn't help but giggle at Ash's face when he turned back to see Midnight and Pikachu cooing in Misty's arms, not a trace of annoyance from either of them.

"I see Midnight and Pikachu likes Misty." I said. Ash's face fell before he yelled.

"It's so gross. Ash, put that slimy thing back in the pokeball!" Misty snapped, looking down in disgust at catepie. "Bugs are one of the three most disgusting things."

"What are the others?" David asked, even though he and I both knew. I only knew from whatever I actually watched when my little cousins came over a couple times a year to visit and I had to babysit.

"One, carrots." Misty explained. "Two, peppers, three bugs! Everyone has something they don't like and I don't like bugs!"

"I hate heights." I said. "I'm okay with a little height but if I'm to high, my stomach starts feeling all weird."

"And I don't like spiders. Those things freak me out." David said.

"You mean like that one." I smirked, pointing to his shirt.

"There isn't one on my shirt." David said but I wasn't ready to just give up the joke.

"Yes there is." I insisted and then he looked at me with stern eyes.

"It is almost impossible to deceive me, especially with such a feeble attempt." He said

"How did you know?" I asked

"When Brock joins the group all will be made clear, or most anyway." He replied and I hate it when people get all mysterious like that. Anyway back to Ash and Misty's bickering.

"Well, I like carrots, peppers, and bugs!" Ash said harshly. "And I don't like the way you're hurting catepie's feelings."

"No fear is silly. Everyone has something that makes them want to scream and run." David said.

"Come on catepie, you're not ugly or disgusting." Ash said. "Climb up on my shoulder." Catepie looked at pikachu, pikablue, and Midnight who nodded encouragingly.

"Go on. You'll be alright with Ash." I said, gesturing with my hands.

"You're not gonna scare Misty anymore." Ash said, carrying catepie.

"What do you mean he won't scare me anymore?" Misty asked.

"We'll go without you." Ash said. Pikachu jumped from Misty ready to follow his trainer and Midnight bounced over to me, ready for anything really.

With that, we left. "How much longer until the first city?" I asked.

"The first city is Pewter and we'll be there soon. A day or two." David said.

"Hm mmm." I nodded. "Huh?" I asked, looking to a group of trees. I thought for a moment, that I had saw something pink disappear behind the trees.

'What is it, Dust?" David asked.

"I don't know. I feel as if something out there." I said. "Maybe it's nothing." I shrugged.

"Oh, it's just a mew but I wonder why he's out this way, hmmm." David remarked.

Just then because of pikachu, Ash realized Misty was following them.

"What are you following us for" Ash asked.

"My...my bike. I'm holding you responsible for my bike." Misty stuttered, coming from behind the trees.

"When are you going to get over that dumb old bike." Ash grumbled.

"For your information Mr. Pokemon Master, your the dumb one cause if you hadn't destroyed it in the first place, I wouldn't be here!" Misty snapped.

"Did I miss something?" I asked.

"Nothing really." David said, rubbing his head.

"I said I would make good on your bike one day, and if I'm so dumb, then how come your still following us?" Ash growled.

"I'm not following you, this happens to be the fast way out of the forest." Misty snapped. Great. We had two hot tempered kids in our group. Does anyone see how bad that would be sooner or later with constant auguring.

That night, Ash, David, and I climbed into our sleeping bags surrounding a roaring fire. I gazed into the embers, not even noticing when David wondered off. I gasped, there was something in the flames. An image, maybe. In the flames, there I was, cheering in a large crowd in a huge stadium. There were people standing in a line in rows in the stadium. Then, I saw my friends standing in the line with their pokemon, grinning widely. When I blinked, the image was gone.

(Dust?) Midnight asked.

"Oh, I'm alright." I said. "Must have imagined it. Night, Midnight." I yawned and rolled over.

Morning came and I could say I had better awakenings. We all woke up to Misty's screams that echoed throughout the forest.

"Come on." David sighed. "Let's get breakfast ready." he pulled some stuff, out and started to cook.

"What is it, Midnight?" I asked. He was growling at the foot of my sleeping bag. I paled when I felt something moving inside. It was my turn to scream and kick out of it.

"Calm down. Let me see..." David said and emptied out my sleeping bag. Out fell a weedle.

"Ooh." I cooed and picked him up. "He must have gotten cold and wanted some warmth. Thanks Midnight. I probably wouldn't have even realized he was there." I rubbed his head. He seemed pleased with himself. "Do we have any pokefood?"

"Yeah, here's some." David said, handing me a bowl. I placed weedle down and placed the bowl in front of him. He started to eat. I petted him while he ate and man, he was hungry. He finished the whole bowl before I reached the fifth stroke.

"Misty, catepie just wants to be you're friend." Ash exclaimed. How was he so happy in the morning?

"If that thing wants to be my friend, it can stop bugging me." Misty glared. "And keep that weedle from me as well."

"Hey, he did nothing to you." I snapped, holding weedle snug in my arms.

"Why catepie likes you, I'll never know." Ash snapped. I heard something and apparently, everyone else did to when we all looked up. It sounded like a bird.

"Pidgeotto!" David exclaimed.

David's POV

Pidgeotto flew down and of course Ash wanted to catch him. But being such a complete novice he sent out caterpie. Misty and Dust both shouted at him how birds eat bugs or in Misty's case 'birds eat worms'. But I knew better then to make a fuss. Caterpie was defeated quickly and so pikachu shocked the flying/normal type good. Then Ash proceeded to catch the pidgeotto. Then a horrible thought occurred to me. I would have to relive the Ashley episode and other horrific times in Ash's journey. As if once wasn't enough. Oh well.

"I caught a pidgeotto!" Ash was shouting but Misty was telling him he had to think before he acted. Before it could get too bad Team Rocket showed up and did that tired old theme song. Of course I could have called out lucario or zapdos to take care of them in a flash but the time was not ripe. So I just let the events unfold.

"You know, when you're watching the show you know Team Rocket's pathetic. But in real life they're even worse." Dust remarked as caterpie was kicking butt.

"Don't worry, in Unova they get a lot better. So at least then they won't be total push overs." I responded and then caterpie evolved into metapod. So we celebrated and went on our merry way. But I couldn't help thinking about all that was going on. First there's this mysterious 'bad man' who could be anyone from Voldemort to Visser Three to Bowser. Second there's the shadow that approached Dust. Well at least that rules out Sephiroth, he may be a dark being but he never got that whole shadowy thing down. He's forward with where he is and what he wants. Why he wants it is usually a mystery. Third is why someone is after Ash in the first place. Fourth is why did Dust's appearance change. The things off the top of my mind are she, like me, had ancestors who lived in a different dimension but were somehow transported to the Earth we know and love and the dimension traveling has reawakened some DNA like it had for me. Another possiblity is that Dust has a dimensional twin, a person that looks and act almost exactly like her, in a pokemon dimension. Or Arceus is just screwing with her mind.

"What are you thinking about?" Misty asked

"Nothing." I replied and regained my train of though. Fifth is why Dust was chosen in the first place. From what I gather she wasn't a fan of pokemon so I can only assume she has some power that sleeps within. Sixth is how Dust and Midnight forged a link between their hearts even before they met. On that note why couldn't I hear Midnight's whines? I suspect it has something to do with why Dust was chosen. If only Midnight wasn't a dark type! Then I could probe deeper into her mind and see if there is anything of use there. But my training in getting around the dark type's natural psychic barriers is still at the basics. So the only thing to do was wait. Wait until the 'bad man' showed himself. Wait until Arceus made clear why he chose Dust. And wait until the kingdom hearts of this dimesion appears. It's going to be a long wait.


	4. Viridian Forest part 2

**Hello all! MSkitty543921 and I have decided from now on we will take turns doing the first and second halves of each chapter. Today's adventure is the return of the ninja as I like to call it.**

David's POV

Yet another scream sliced the air but this time I was ready for it and put up a sound sheild. I could have spared my ears a lot of pain back in the old days if I had always been able to use my psychic powers. Anyway, Misty had seen another bug.

"Maybe it was a cowderpie." Ash joked and we all faceplanted. There were times when I missed those bad jokes...now wasn't one of them. The offending bug type was a weedle. Of course Ash tried to catch the little guy but pikachu was being a lazy bum. So Ash had to rely on pidgeotto.

"Smells like flowers!" The weedle was as much taken by Misty's smell has caterpie had been. She ran off while Ash commanded pidgeotto with some real skill. Then right on time just before Ash caught the weedle the samurai kid showed up. So with his capture a premature fail he agreed to battle samurai. He sent out pidgeotto who was fast asleep.

"This just isn't Ash's day is it?" Dust asked to no one.

"This is just the beginning, it's about to get a whole lot worse." I remarked and pidgeotto was quickly defeated by pinsir. So out came metapod and with a harden he was able to shatter pinsir's horns. So samurai sent out his metapod. I knew this part so we all settled in. The kept using harden so The girls caught some rays, the pikachus had a few fruit smoothies, and I was left to do some meditating. After about an hour I sensed a few soldiers but I intercepted them and took care of the lot. After that the next few hours were just waiting for someone to give up. Then they both collapes of stiffness at the same time.

"You two are more hard headed then your metapod!" Misty shouted and then a beedrill swarm attacked and Ash's metapod was stolen. With that we beat the hasty retreat and found ourselfs at samurai's cabin. We got in but the cabin door wasn't going to last for long and there was a heartless boss on the way. So I ran out the door, closing it behind me, summoned the trainer's strenght fire type keyblade and started to dispatch beedrill and heartless alike.

Dust POV:

We were lucky to make it to the cabin. That door wasn;t going to last forever with all the beedrills pounding on it.

"David!" I yelled when he rushed out the door. Crashes was heard.

"Well, he's dead now." Samurai said.

"Don't say that." I snapped. David wasn't going to die just because he ran out into a swarm of beedrills. He might be crazy enough to do it but he could take care of himself...I hope.

"I hope you learned your lesson." the samurai told Ash. "Your letting that weedle escaped almost cost us our lioves. Not even a novie would leave their pokemon behind. Your metapod will pay for it's trainers inexperience."

Midnight growled, tensed like he was about to jump samurai but I placed a hand on him. He calmed immediently. Weedle laid on my shoulder, clutching to my shirt.

"Hey." someone said behind me and I jumped. No one had noticed David walk in, not a scratch on him and holding metapod in his arms. All the beedrills had fled. He deposited the pokemon into Ash's arms.

"Don't do that." I snapped. "And at least you weren't killed. Who else is going to help me with our 'problem.'"

"Thanks." David said dryly. Everyone stopped when a bright light emitted throughout the cabin. When it faded, Ash stood in the center of the room, gaping at the butterfree flying above their heads, an empty shell in his arms.

"Beautiful." I smiled. Maybe I could have a butterfree some day. Since catepie's and weedles seemed a lot alike, maybe my weedle would evolve just as fast.

"You were able to control your butterfree so well just after it evolved, most impressive." Samurai did a rare smile as butterfree floated down into Ash's arms.

"Does that mean we can go to Pewter now?" Misty asked. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to stay in this creepy forest anymore."

"I'm surprised you didn'y scream at butterfree. It's still a bug type." I said.

"Yeah, but butterfree is cuter than catepie." Misty answered. Samurai walked us from the cabin and we finally reached a path through the trees. How we didn't notice that when we were running, I'll never know.

"This road will take you to pewter city." samurai said.

"Thank you, samurai." I smiled.

"But before we leave, we still have to finish our match." Ash reminded the samurai.

"Compared to you, my friend, I am the novice, but I will continue to try and perfect mt style, and one day, we will meet agin." the samurai said.

"Maybe we will meet." I said.

"Don't bet on it." David mummered to me. I sighed and pouted.

"I'm sure we will meet again some day, samurai." Ash said. So sad. They probably wouldn't meet again, not in the series at least.

"Just promise that you won't use metapod VS metapod again." Misty said.

"I don't know. At least we got a little tan." I said. "But I can't wait for Pewter City. Maybe that means that we can sleep in a rea bed. I was never big on camping." We finished our goodbyes and headed for Pewter City where hopefully, a badge or two or three would be won.


	5. Pewter City

MSKITTY HERE TO HAVE CHAPTER 5 AND PART 1

Dust POV:

"Yay! Pewter City!" Misty exclaimed.

"Yay! Civilization!" I smiled wildly. We stood on a small two-four foot cliff looking at pewter city so close. Ash sat on a rock exhausted.

"Pewter city is gray, the color of stone. This town has always been famous for stone." a voice said and I jumped. There was a man sitting at the bottom of the cliff. He had a beard and red bandanna on his head.

"Who's the old guy?" Ash asked.

"Never met him." Misty said.

"The name's Flint." he said.

"Oh! I remember yo...!" I squeaked when David covered my mouth. I remembered, I couldn't just tell them I knew some man who never met me. I only seen him once or twice on TV when it came on and I was busy doing homework. Some things actually slipped into my head and stuck that time.

"Young man, you're sitting on my merchandise." Flint said.

"What? Oh, sorry!" Ash apologized and hopped up. "Um, you mean you sell rocks?" On shelves next to the old man was rocks with price tags on them. Who sold rocks for a living and who would buy them?

"They're Pewter City souvenirs." Flint answered, probably used to that question by now. "Wanna buy some?"

"No thanks, I'm traveling to become a pokemon trainer." Ash exclaimed. He was proud. I am to, finally getting to travel the world instead of being stuck around at home. I'll probably be doing my homework by now.

"Your pokemon look warm out." Flint commented, looking down at Pikachu, pikablue, Midnight, and weedle. "Follow me and I'll show you the way to the pokemon center."

"Thank you, Mr. Flint." I said.

"Just call me Flint." he said.

"Looks can be deceiving, he's a nice guy." Ash said as Flint started to leave.

"No one even notices he's leaving." David said.

"They're dense." I said.

"Yeah, they are." David agreed.

"Are you sure?" Misty asked. She was still doubting him.

"Either way, that'll be a two dollar charge for resting on my rock." Flint said, coming back. Everyone but David collapsed.

At the pokemon center, "Please, revitalize my pokemon." Ash said to the pink haired nurse behind the counter.

"Mine too, please." David said.

"Don't forget mine." I said, putting weedle on the counter, Midnight standing beside me.

"Sure, right away, Ash, David, and Dust." the nurse said, turning around.

"Nurse Joy?" Ash and I asked. Wasn't she in Viridian? How'd she beat us here.

"Yes, I'm Nurse Joy." she replied.

"But this isn't viridian city. This is pewter city." Ash said confused.

"The Joy is viridian city is my little sister. I'm the older Joy. The Joy in viridian city is my little sister, I've heard very nice things about you three." Joy finished off. What kind of family named both their two daughter, Joy? "Did you see those posters?" We turned and saw two posters on the wall.

"The pokemon league regional championships, alright!" Ash exclaimed.

"The pokemon competition? I never heard of it." David said.

"Ha!" Misty exclaimed.

"What's the matter?" Ash asked.

"One, to complete in the regional championships, you need to beat gym trainers from different towns and get their badges as proof." Misty said and looked at the Pokemon competition poster. "Two, to be eligible to compete in the regional competition championships, you need to compete against ten other trainers in different tows. First, you see how good you can communicate with you're pokemon by letting them guide you through a task the town has specifically chosen. Then you have to go through an obstacle course with all you're pokemon out. Next, you have to battle. The last one gets the town badge as proof. There's one being held tomorrow. Can you do that?"

"Of course I can!" Ash exclaimed.

"I don't know but that competition sounds interesting. Sign me up!" I exclaimed. Midnight and weedle were sure to be plenty of help.

"Hahah!" Flint laughed, walking up to us. "Don't tell me your planning on challenging Brock, the pewter city gym leader" he mocked. Maybe he was surely not as nice as I had first thought.

"Of course I do!" Ash said defensive. "As soon as pikachu and my other pokemon are better, I'll have no problem. Take me to this Brock's gym, I'll beat him." Ash was confident and that worried me. When you start getting that confident, you mess up and end up losing in the end. Flint laughed as if it was the greatest joke known to man and walked away. We decided to find a restaurant and go eat if just to calm Ash down.

"Ohh, that Flint. Trying to make a fool out of me." Ash said, stuffing some food in his face. I was as well. Man, I never knew that when I've been eating whatever food we had in a forest, a restaurant's food was like heaven on earth. Besides the check.

"Do you really think you can win?" Misty asked and explained. "Gym leaders are different from your every day trainers. Their much, much tougher. Dust could win her competition because she's going up against nine more competitors who are pokemon trainers, not leaders."

"I'll tell you what, Ash and David, you can use my pokemon." Misty offered. "If you ask me really nicely, I'll help you out." she said. Her voice went all singing like.

"No thanks, Misty." David said. "I'm not sure if I'll even go for gym battles."

"I don't know, should I go with gym battles or competitions?" I asked myself.

"Maybe both." David said. "Level our you're options."

"Hey, Dust. I'll offer you one of my pokemon." Misty said.

"Sure. I might not use it but if I have to, it'd be nice to know I'm ready, no matter the pokemon Brock uses."

"I don't need any help." Ash said rudely.

"Is that so?" Misty snapped, glaring. "Fine with me, there's no way you'll beat Brock at the pewter city gym." David, not wanted to get into anything with Ash, left. It was now just me and Ash.

"Well..." Ash said, grabbing the check.

"Oh, look at the time." I said. "I better go so there's a spot saved for me at the competition. Bye, Ash!" I yelled and raced away.

"Hey, you can't leave me with the check!" Ash yelled.

David's POV

I was walking about wondering what I was supposed to do to pass the time while here. I suppose I could do that pokemon competition. At least it'll be something to do. Typical Ash had refused Misty's offer of pokemon. Some things never change but it also caused me to wonder again why this Ash in particular. Anyway I went to sign up for the competition. But that would mean I would have to face the gyms after all and that meant that I might as well compete in the indigo league too.

"And just what do you think you're doing?" Flint had tried to sneak up on me but of course I was unsurprised. I told him I had needed fresh air and he went to sell more rocks. By now Ash would be getting his butt kicked by Brock so I headed over to the gym and sure enough Ash was running out with his pikachu in his arms. But next up was Dust. Somehow her umbreon pulled out a win against onix and her weedle was able to poison geodude and then wrap the pokemon into a ball with string shot. This staggering victory won her the boulder badge. But I wasn't going to battle Brock until after Ash beat him because I knew it would only take one try. So Dust awaited the competition the next day.

"I knew I'd find you here." I said as I found Ash and Flint powering up pikachu. I always wondered why he didn't just go out and catch a water pokemon. Most likely because Brock had insulted pikachu. So they worked through the night and I kept near enough to provide guard duty and to think about how I was going to format all that I had to tell. So by the next morning everything was ready but first was the competition. For the guided course I chose lucario so we could use both psychic abilities and aura to clear the track with the greatest of ease. To my great surprise Dust and Midnight did just as well. Next was the obstacle course with all the pokemon out. So out came my lucario,luxray,wartortle, sceptile, typlosion, and of course pikablue. Dust only had Midnight and her weedle. The obstacle course had many hoops and rope ladders and the like but I knew everyone would be just fine. Luxray had a bit of trouble with the rope ladder and lucario managed get himself caugh in a hoop for a second but we all made it.

"Come on Dust!" Misty was in the crowd cheering and while weedle had a good bit of trouble he still made it. Finally was the trainer. He had a chamilion and an ivysaur. I chose my wartortle, and typhlosion. The battle was short and sweet. Dust was up next and since she only had Midnight and weedle those were her choices. Midnight was able to crush charmilion with a stunning shadow ball and weedle pulled the string shot trick again. How he pulled it off I'll never know. So we had both won the thing and all I had left to do was win the pewter badge. So we headed to the gym to find Ash and Brock just getting started. Pikachu fried geodude and next came onix but pikachu's bolts went out of control and hit the sprinklers. So as onix went to crush pikachu he got soaked.

"I feel like all of Brock's brothers and sisters are holding me back." Ash said but they really were all over him. Ash left and I won with ease against Brock. Later we were at the river and Brock ran up and gave Ash the boulder badge and Flint showed himself to Brock and took over the pewter gym so Brock could travel with us. So now it was time to tell all. But I still didn't know how to say it but at breakfast I gather them together. However before I could start a good dozen neoshadows showed up and Misty and Dust both screamed. But I took care of them with the Ultima weapon. So using that as a spring board I told everyone how I was a keyblade warrior, aspiring to be a keyblade master, and a pokemorph, and a psychic. This took a good bit of explaining and demonstrating but we got there in the end. But for now with everyone except Dust everything was on a need to know basis.


	6. Mt Moon

!-DIV {margin:0px;}-**Hello once again to this wonderfully new story. Today we meet one of the villain's underlings. This is psychicshipping giving you best wishes for a good day and hoping for a siwft recovery in Japan.**

David's POV

We were approaching mount Moon and as we drew closer I heard Seymour screaming. We chased off the zubat and I caught one this time around. After all the zubat were gone Seymour started to smother Ash with affection.

"I'M ALIVVVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Seymour was louder then I remember. So we went into mount moon and found the lights put there by Team Rocket. Well at least all the lights will deter any heartless. Since I knew we were about to run into Meowth and Team Rocket I decided to slip away because something didn't seem right. So I wandered for a bit and then a force field went up behind me, blocking my escape.

"So you're the keyblade wielder, I assure you I'm honored." I looked and on a ledge was a boy with a mask. Not a full head helmet like Vanitas but just a mask that covered his face."The chief will be happy to hear that you're here, that means he's finally found the right Ash."

"Who are you and what do you want with Ash?" I demanded but the guy just drew a sword.

"I won't tell you who we are because then you might figure out why we want Ash. My job is to see just how strong you are." And with that he attacked and I summoned the ultima weapon. His swordsman ship was unparalleled and the darkness was almost overpowering on its own. What's worse it he was using a plain sword he could have gotten anywhere. Whoever was the mastermind of this operation was extremely clever. But the sword proved to be the weakness that won the day. I used a fire raid and he foolishly tried to block and the sword shattered and the attack landed. He fell backwards and just lay there.

"I wonder who you are." I said and reached down to pull off his mask when he started laughing!

"You are strong, but when the time comes you'll be no match for us." And with that he vanished into a corridor of darkness.

Dust POV:

The sun was going down and I sat with Ash, Brock, Misty, David who finally showed up, who knows where he's been, Seymour and our pokemon. Our pokemon were leading us through the forest and we had no idea where we were going. Finaaly, we found a cave and entered. After walking through the dark, I saw the most glamour sight. In the center of a large room was something that could only be the moon stone.

"The moon stone." Seymour gasped. So, I had been right. It glittered like diamonds. Midnight next to me moved closer, his yellow stripes glowing a faint color.

"What's up with Midnight?" Ash asked.

"Umbreon is the moonlight pokemon. Their stripes glow on a full moon." Dust said.

"Hmm? How did you know that?" David asked surprised.

"I thought I might as well learn more about pokemon, so I've been studying Midnight and weedle first." I grinned.

"So, the moon stone legend is true." Brock said. Then, we noticed the clefairy's doing something. They were putting small stones to surround the larger stone. There were just so many. I've never seen a group this big before. They were dancing around the stone.

"Amazing, these clefairy formed their own society, this is an incredible site." Seymour said.

"Hey, pikachu, what have the clefairy been telling you anyway?" Ash asked and pikachu talked.

"You understand that?" Seymour asked.

"Of course I do. It's my pokemon." Ash said.

"The clefairy pray to the moon stone." David sighed.

"Oh." Ash said.

"Of course, it makes sense!" Seymour gasped.

"What makes sense?" Ash and I asked.

"Outer space!" Seymour shouted. "Pokemon and the human race will ride the moon stone into space! First to the moon, then to mars, then together to the stats!"

"Al...right." I said slowly. What was that suppose to mean?"

"Stars, that's our cue." Meowth smirked, entering the cave.

"You guys don't know when to quit." Ash said.

"Sometimes, I wonder if they'll ever throw in the towel and go home." I sighed.

"You're telling me." David said. "But they'll never learn.

"What's that unusaual sound?" James asked. Of course, I would miss part of the convasation.

"His knees are shaking!" Jesse laughed.

"Sounds like a wimp." Meowth smirked.

"His knees may be shaking but at least he's standing up to you. I call that brave." I snapped, placing my hands on my hips.

"I'll show you!" Seymout yelled and ran at them. Ash yelled for him but Meowth tripped him, causing his glasses to fly from his face.

"What a dirty trick." Misty glared.

"Enough talk!" James yelled and Ash agreed, sending out pikachu. I sent out Midnight and David sent out pikablue. Brock sent out onix and pikachu, pikablue, and Midnight jumped on his head. Jessie and James sent out ekens and koffing.

"Let's show them size doesn't matter. Ekens, underground!" Jesse yelled and eken dived into the ground. James yelled for koffing to do smokescreen and we all coughed as smoke filled the air. Ash sent out pidgeotto and cleared the air.

"Let's go get team rocket before they get away!" I yelled, realizing the moon stone was missing. How they ever got it out in that time was beyond me.

"Onix, follow them underground!" Brock commanded. Onix nodded and dived underground after the pikachu's and Midnight jumped off. We ran after team rocket on foot. We made it down the hill where onix had trapped team rocket. "Nice work, onix, now wrap them up!" Onix yelled.

"Koffing, counter attack!" James commanded. Onix let out a roar of suprise when koffing slammed into him.

"Is that Seymour?" I asked, noticing the scientist poking his head out of the large hole.

"He followed us underground." David said.

"I think I got that part." I said annoyed. Then, the clefairy's came out of the hole around seymour. I once again marveled at their numbers. Every one of us except for David got dizzy when the clefairy's combined their metronome. And...BOOM! Team Rocket went 'blasting off again!'

I gasped. "It's so beautiful." The moon shards from the moon stone fell to the ground in shatters. As a couple hit half of the clefairy, they changed into clefables. Me and Ash took out our pokedexes.

Clefable, an advance form of unique pokemon are among the rarest in the world.

"The power of the moon stone did this." Seymour said amazed. As the sun came up, Seymour told us sometthing that I thought shocked us all. "I've decided to live here, with the clefairy. It's been m life's dream to find the moon stone, some day, I will travel the stars with the clefairy."

"I'm sure you're dream will come true, Seymour." I encouraged.

"Remember to send a postcard." Brock said. With those last words, we left with hopes and dreams clouding in our heads.


	7. Cerulean

Cerulean City

Dust POV:

"Time for cerulean!" I laughed. "The name sounds so pretty. Cerulean's a color. Maybe I could get some cerulean colored earrings."

"Oh, you should. I think the color would look great on you." Misty said but then she froze. "Did you say Cerulean? As in Cerulean City?"

"Yeah, Misty." I said confused. "It's our next stop."

"But we can't go there!" Misty stopped.

"Why not, that's where our next badges are." Ash said.

"No, you don't want pokemon from there, trust me." Misty insisted.

"How do you know?" I asked. "Have you been to cerulean before?"

"Oh, well..." Misty stuttered. "All the pokemon are very scary ghost pokemon!" Misty exclaimed.

"Um, okay." I said. "A ghost would be good to have on my team, as long as they don't scare me to bad." We continued on our way but Misty stood in front of us, arms stretched out to prevent us from coming. "You know, you don't have to come, Misty." I said.

"I'm coming with you to get my bike paid for." Misty insisted "But how about vermilion city? It's right by the water and there are lots of neat pokemon and you can watch all the giant yachts going in and out of the harbor and there's a nice little park way up on the hill where you can sit and watch the sunset that's so amazing."

"Hey, there's a gym and competition in vermilion so we'll get there." I said. What can I say. I've been doing my homework.

"Okay, let's go." Ash said. I was suprised. What was he doing?"

"Really?" Misty asked hopefully.

"Yeah, to cerulean city." Ash smiled and Misty's face fell. I should have known. As David, Ash, Brock, Pikachu, Pikablue, Midnight and I walked away, I looked over my shoulder and gave Misty one more look before heading to Cerulean City.

"So, this is cerulean city?" Ash asked.

"Wow, after seeing nothing but trees, this is amazing." I gasped.

"Hey look, that's weird. Misty's not following us." Ash commented.

"She really didn't want to come to cerulean." Brock said.

"I wonder what's here she didn't like. Seems like a pretty good place to me." I commented. I wasn't paying attention and tripped over something...or someone.

"Hey! Why don't you watch where you're going!" I snapped from my knees. The guy I tripped over had his legs stretched out while he sat on a bench. He just chuckled. The guy had messy brown hair and dark green eyes. "Huh?"

"Maybe you should watch where you step." he chuckled.

"Maybe you shouldn't be sitting like that. Any one can trip over you!" I snapped, standing up.

"Let's go, Dust." David said. He grabbed my shoulders from behind and forced me away.

"David, why'd you make me leave?" I asked with narrowed eyes. Something about that guy just made me want to scream.

"Maybe because there's something dark about him. If you ever see him again, be cautious." David insisted.

"Alright, but I doubt I'll ever see that jerk again!" I declared.

David's POV

I was seriously worried. That kid reeked of darkness but his heart was filled with light. I wasn't even sure that was possible until now. So the big question was who is that kid and why was he both dark and light at the same time? But just then we came across the place where Team Rocket had stolen a vacuum cleaner. Then all of a sudden we were accused of being the robbers. Here we go again.

"The criminal always returns to the scene of the crime." Jenny said

"By that logic everyone here could be the robber." I pointed out and then we showed her our pokedexes and Brock his boulder badge. Brock asked to be shown around town.

"I would but I'm not off duty until past your bed time."

"Ouch, score one for her." Dust remarked and later Ash asked about the Cerulean gym. Brock couldn't say anything out of respect for a fellow gym leader. But I had no such qualms. I told him Cerulean city does water type pokemon. Once we got there we had to suffer through an underwater ballet by Misty's sisters. Dust and pikachu liked it but Ash was more worried about the gym battle and pikablue had seen it before and I just didn't care for it. So later we challenged the gym leaders. But they didn't fell like battling.

"Same old same old." Pikablue remarked as Daisy held out a cascade badge for each of us. But we had our honor! We were going to win those badges fair and square. And then Misty showed up to put a stop to this outrage. So Ash discovered why Misty had been against coming here. Then the who boyfriend/girlfriend thing between Ash and Misty began. Daisy is the one who started it all folks! I really need to stop putting purple pokeblock in my cereal in the mourning.

"IF YOU WANT THAT CASCADE BADGE YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO BEAT ME!" Misty shouted and pikachu ducked out because he didn't want to battle Misty.

"Softy." Pikablue remarked but the word in my mind was more like traitor. So out came butterfree and Misty called staryu. It was a draw and then pidgeotto kicked starmie's butt. Then Team Rocket struck.

"Yawn, how many times do we have to listen to this?" Dust asked but I told her that if she knew she would cry. They started to suck up water but water conducts electricity so we put the double thundershock into action.

"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!"

So Ash won his badge and then Dust used Midnight to clean up, especially where the water/psychic type starmie was concerned. So now it was my turn.

Dust's POV

David for some reason chose to go out in his fire type form. That made no sense until staryu used water gun. Then he made like he was taking a shower.

"WHY ISN'T THIS WORKING?" Misty shouted in frustration but to tell the truth I didn't know what was going on either. Then staryu got nailed by a sky uppercut and was finished. Next came starmie who was part psychic type according to my research. But psychic type moves or water type moves it made no difference to David. If you'll excuse the pun, he was on fire. Then he used solarbeam. That did it for starmie. With all of us now having cascade badges we continued on. But I had to ask David how he did it.

"I've been training by swimming around and doing other watery activities to build up my water type resistance for years. As for the psychic thing, I'm just about as powerful as psychics come. Do you really think I'd let some second rate psychic attack hurt me?" So I had my answers.


	8. AJ

The world of pokemon

This is psychicshipping kicking off this chapter and we meet the dreaded AJ and his sandshrew from Outer Spaaaace!

David's POV

We were back in an area that brought back such memories. This was about where AJ lives. Of course Ash was still riding his hot streak with his second badge and was ready to take all comers. Some poor boy with a rattata lost to Ash's pidgeotto. With that he had won ten times. Dust was equally busy training from the next badge. The kid Ash just beat suggested we challenge AJ. So we went and found him and his board that said 98 wins.

"Wow, that's a lot of wins." Dust remarked but I wasn't going to bother beating him. I knew I would wipe the floor with the poor sap. Then Ash showed AJ his badges and dissed the gyms the badges came from and of course Misty and Brock weren't going to stand for that. So Ash sent out his pidgeotto. He was destroyed.

"What about you?" AJ asked, pointing his whip at me.

"I wouldn't want to ruin your winning streak." I replied

"How about putting your pokemon where your mouth is?" AJ challenged and since he was so itching for a fight I agreed to beat him. After a bit of thought I went with my sceptile. First he came at sceptile with a rollout but it would take more that than to even touch my lighting fast grass type. Just as sandshrew was about to hit sceptile dodged and hit him up into the air and then jumped up and slashed him furiously with leaf blade. Sandshrew came crashing back down and he wasn't in very good shape.

"Come on David!" Misty and Brock were cheering loudest of all, apparently they were still mad at AJ for the gym badge remarks.

"Let's go sandshrew, I didn't train you to lose!" AJ shouted and sandshrew started to dig and that was his fatal mistake.

"Solarbeam sceptile." I instructed sceptile and he charged up and blasted the beam right into the hole. Then the sandshrew blasted out of the ground and he even tried to get up but fainted. AJ had to start over so he went in his tent but Ash wanted a rematch. So we went inside to see AJ's training. Ash got a little too worked up over. I was fine with how he trained so long as he wasn't cruel to his pokemon.

Dust POV:

"What do you want now, a swimming match?" AJ asked after Ash tackled him and they landed in the swimming pool. Why did boys always have to fight? At least fist weren't swinging or I'll send Midnight after them. Ash yelled at AJ who snapped at him.

"Um, boys." I called. Midnight was sniffing at Pikachu who was rolled into a ball.

"What's that, a straight jacket?" Ash asked.

"Here, I can get it off." David said and removed the offending object.

"Who created it?" Brock questioned. Now that I thought about it, that was an interesting question.

"I did." AJ said. That surprised me. He didn't seem the type to create something like that. "It's my own secret weapon for unleashing a pokemon's powers." AJ continued. "Now back in the pool!" AJ snapped and sandshrew dived in.

"But I thought sandshrew were weaken by water?" I asked.

"They normally are." David said beside me. I jumped. I hadn't notice he was standing there.

"Don't do that!" I snapped.

"What." He said, flashing an innocent smile. I glared and huffed.

"I have to be tough, but I don't ask any more of sandshrew than I do myself." AJ glared. Ash complained saying that he doesn't go nearly as hard on his other Pokémon.

"That's because sandshrew was the first pokemon I ever caught! I'll never forget that moment, we promised to do whatever it took to become the greatest pokemon trainer of all time. Nothing would stop us from reaching our dream, no matter how hard the path. Enduring fierce storms and raging winds. We've sacrificed everything to achieve our dream, and it was worth it. We're an unbeatable team!" By the time AJ's speech was finished, I thought my eyes were wet.

"What you're doing is wrong, a great trainer should make friends with they're pokemon." Ash declared.

"He's right." I said. "Me, Midnight, and Weedle wouldn't be the team we are today without two things, teamwork and friendship."

"That's you're method." AJ glared.

"How about you Brock?" Ash asked.

"Your pokemon are in great shape, what kind of food do you use?" Brock asked. Well, that wasn't what I thought he would have said. Seriously, here's a boy that mistreated his pokemon and yet, Brock was worried about what food they were being feed.

"My own recipe, come on, I'll show you." AJ said and led us to a cabinet. When he opened it, it was filled with jars, each with a different picture of pokemon on it. "To get the results I want, I have to carefully monitor the pokemon diet. Of course the recipe's a secret."

"Of course." Brock agreed. "You know, I mix my own pokemon food to. Hey, Dust,"

"Yeah?" I asked.

"I was thinking of letting Midnight try some of this. I stayed up all night mixing out different recipes." Brock said. When we turned to Midnight, she was already eating it and cooing happily.

"Well, I guess that means she likes it." I smiled.

"Alright, you get a fifteen minute break." AJ announced as a bell rung.

"Fifteen minutes? I would pass out and sleep the old fifteen if I was on your training." I said.

"In this gym, we live by the rule, no pain no gain. But judging by your stuffed Pikachu, you don't live by any rules." AJ said and Ash got defensive and AJ snapped again, sending his pokemon out again.

"What happened to Sandshrew?" I asked and AJ started to freak.

"Maybe he ran away." Ash suggested.

"What are you talking about?" AJ demanded.

"The way you treat your pokemon, I'm surprised they haven't ran away." Ash said.

"Ash…" I said sadly. There was a sandshrew missing and all they seemed to care about was some rivalry that was starting up against them.

"Sandshrew and I have been together for a long time!" AJ snapped.

"Yeah, I know, but when sandshrew saw how well Pikachu and I got along, it thought it deserved better. I'll find a trainer who will treat me like I treat Pikachu."

I stepped between them, putting a hand on their chest to prevent them from doing something. "Listen up boys, we need to find sandshrew. Standing around here arguing isn't going to get him back here anytime soon." Ash and AJ looked down, ashamed by their actions.

That was when a hole burst from the ground, just an inch or so in front of me where sandshrew jumped out. I ducked, David ducked, and then sandshrew hit Ash. Ash was confused as sandshrew and AJ hugged happily. At that moment, I decided that there was nothing more beautiful than a child and their pokemon reuniting.

"AJ is tough, but as you can see, he cares deeply for his pokemon." Brock said.

"Wow, he really does care about his pokemon." Ash said, his eyes widening as he realized this simple fact.

"Does that mean the fighting's over?" I asked.

"Yes, it does." David nodded behind me. I glared. Once again, he had managed to sneak up on me. It was time to learn to heighten my senses.

I felt something tugging on my shirt and realized it was Midnight. It was then I noticed a very familiar meowth dazed on the floor. When Ash yelled at it, meowth scratched his face. Then Team Rocket showed up and did the motto. We should really teach them to come up with something new.

"So, these are the creeps that stole my sandshrew?" AJ asked.

"Yes, but it's quite easy to get revenge." David said.

"That was an unfortunate mix-up." Jesse said.

"We have no interest in your second rate sandshrew." James said. That was when I knew AJ was starting to boil over.

"All we want is the Pikachu." Jessie said.

"You can keep all those other wimps." James added.

"That's it…" Ash started but AJ wouldn't let him finish.

"I'll take care of this." AJ said. "Nobody insults my pokemon and gets away with it. Please, step out."

We went outside and team rocket and AJ stood on the battle field. "Team Rocket has insulted our gym, we'll answer them with our one hundredth win!" AJ declared.

"Go AJ!" I cheered.

"Just as sandshrew and I promised." AJ smiled.

"Your small talk will cost you big time." Jessie glared and called out ekens.

"Your turn, Koffing!" James announced, releasing his own Pokémon. The battle had started. In the end, Team Rocket ended up running away.

"How did they even get a job in team rocket?" I asked.

"That's a question everyone asks every day." David said. This time, I didn't jump or glare. Maybe I was getting use to the psychic.

"Now, we can start earning gym badges." AJ said and we walked to the interest. We all left, knowing we had made a new friend who could hopefully, make his own dreams come true.


	9. School of Hard Knocks

School for Hard Knocks

Dust POV:

"I'm hungry." I complained.

"I guess we could all use a little break. Why don't I just throw a little something together." Brock said. I'm pretty sure we all had a sweat drop when Brock pulled out a table and cloth and some more items. Where did he keep it all? "How about some prune juice?" I thought I gagged a bit.

"I think I'll pass." Ash said. Well, at least he agreed with me.

"How about some herbal tea?" Misty asked.

"That could be a relaxing drink." I nodded.

"Of course," Brock said, turning into a guy with a fake French accent. "The key ingredient of all those beverages is water and lucky for us, I have a healthy supply of mount moon spring water. And for a delicious snake, I have ze delicious French crapes."

"You shouldn't say anything French in front of the girls." David sighed but it was to late.

"Ooh, the city of love!" I cooed.

"Aren't French things so romantic?" Misty sighed dreamily. We stopped as something broke through our concentration.

"All that crunching is ruining my romantic daydream!" We yelled and Misty took out a mallet and hit him with it.

"Remind me to get myself one of those." I said.

"Oh no, you're just fine without a mallet." David said.

"What if I need to protect myself." I pouted.

"That is what Midnight is for." David said, pointing to my umbreon trying to sneak some food from Brock and not succeeding.

"By the way, I can't cook crapes and I can't boil water if I don't have a fire!" Brock snapped. In the end, Ash, David, and I ended up going. Me because Umbreon decided to run after the boys and I tagged alone.

"Here firewood, here firewood!" Ash called.

"Ash, firewood isn't just going to jump out of nowhere for you." I sighed, rubbing my temples. I stopped when I noticed something brown jumping around. "I must be hallucinating."

"Umbreon."

"Huh? A pigey? Alright!" I exclaimed.

"What is it, Dust?" Ash asked. "Did you find some firewood."

"No, she found a pidgey." David answered instead.

"And I'm gonna catch it." I smiled. "I only have weedle and umbreon and since weedle's only a bug, go on up, Midnight!"

"Use tackle!" I commanded. That pidgey must be weak or Midnight was just strong because it went down.

I threw the pokeball and it started to shake. A red beam happened and Pidgey came out.

"Okay, try again, Midnight." I said and Midnight shot forward, slamming into Pidgey but still, it would not go down. It was stubborn and Midnight was running around as it pecked at her head. "Bite!"

The pidgey gasped as it Midnight bit into her wing, I threw the ball and tried again. This time, the ball shook three times, making me tenser and tenser and finally, the ball stopped with a ting.

"Alright!" I laughed, hugging my new friend close. I hugged Midnight around the neck, falling to my knees happily.

"Hey, a fire." Ash said, running to a light past the trees. David ran after him.

"Hey!" I yelled, putting my new friend onto my belt. "Wait for me! Don't you know you're not supposed too go to the light!"

"What's going on here?" I heard Ash say when I made it to a clearing. All this running we do is going to get me some muscle soon enough.

"There's nothing going on here, mind your own business." A kid about Ash's age said.

"If there's some bullying going on here, then it has to stop." I glared.

"There no room in our pokemon school for losers who don't knew know Pidgey's evolved state." Another kid said.

"It's sixteen and then thirty-six." I said, reading from my pokedex.

"Without cheating." Another one said.

"I need to study pidgey." I sighed.

"Well, experience is a better teacher than facts." David said.

"I don't know about this school of yours," Ash said. "But if it's turning out students like you, I'd have to say the standards are pretty low."

"That's right, you tell them." A familiar voice said. Misty and Brock came out of the woods.

"We got worried when you didn't come back." Brock said.

"You'd better leave that kid alone, or you'll have to answer to us, right?" Misty said.

"Right." I nodded.

"Stay out of this, Misty. Leave it to me." Ash said. Right, like he was going to take them all on his own.

"Your right Ash, there's no reason for all four of us to get into a fight." Misty smirked. "It's very brave of you to take on all five of them by yourself. We'll be on the side lines, cheering you on, waiting to drag your carcass away at the end."

"Go, Ash, you can do it!" I said in a loud, high pitched, fake cheerleading voice the cheerleaders on TV did, clapping my hands. Now, if only I was flexible and had a pair of pompoms to go with my new attitude.

"We don't fight." One of the boys said.

"Fighting is for cave men." Another smirked.

"Jerks." I scoffed.

"We'll see you back at the tech, Joe." The kid who seemed to be the leader said.

"Ok." Joe, a ten year old, brown haired, brown eyed boy said cheerfully. How could he be happy with those kids bullying.

"Who do they think they are?" Ash asked.

David's POV

Ah sweet memories. This was where Arceus had sent me on the path to my almost doom. As charming as that was I still remembered Joey. Anyway last time I was here I nearly killed myself for embarrassment by being overcome by the urge to mimic The Doctor. So I got to watch pikachu mess with the treadmill all over again. But poketech still sounded like a rip off to me. So I guess the saying is true, the more things change the more they stay the same. Just about then Joey pulled out the picture of the student body president. Just like before Ash and Brock went ga ga over her. Misty and Dust voiced their displeasure loudly.

"Are we here to make fools of ourselves again?" Pikablue asked

"Most likely." I replied as Dust and Misty marched off to find the 'upstart'. So we walked to the battle sim room and Joey kicked butt on the cerulian city sim. But Misty challenged Joey to a real life battle and she wiped the floor with him. It was sad really. Then Giselle showed up and Ash and Brock fell under her spell. It was disgusting really. Misty and Giselle got into a cat fight and poor Ash was about to walk heedlessly into it but Brock and I talked him out of it. These things never ended well especially for any boys who get involved. But I knew I had to save Ash from embarrassment. So before Ash could challnge Giselle I stepped in. I challenged her. She really wore my nerves so I had no qualmes about going all out with my empoleon on her cubone. It took a single ice beam to KO the runt.

"Guess we didn't embarrass ourselves." Pikablue remarked and then Team Rocket showed up. Same pains in the butt as always. But they were quickly overpowered by empty pokeballs.

"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!"

Later Joey and Giselle were talking and it appeared being utterly destroyed had humbled her. All in all she was a much more likeable person now. With that we continued on.


	10. Bulbasaur and the Hidden Village

Hello everyone! Psychicshipping here to kick off another chapter that'll make your head spin. I just want to remind everyone who's reading my original story that this story contains SPOILERS!

David's POV

We were on our way to bulbasaur's hidden village but something was seriously wrong. I could sense it as soon as the sun had risen that mourning. It was almost palpable and it had a distinctly rancid smell. As usual we were lost and then Ash found that oddish that in another place I had caught and had evolved into a shiny bellosom. Just as Misty was about to catch the grass/poison type bulbasaur showed up and put a stop to it. So Ash tried to catch bublasaur and failed.

"I didn't know bulbasaur could use gust." Dust remarked and the two pokemon escaped. We walked a little while longer and then came to a very old bridge. Just then we heard a snap and we whirled around. There was a proto shadow. Extremely intelligent; proto shadows are extremely dangerous and take the form of whatever living creature it imprints on first. At first there was one and the next instant there were hundreds. I could feel my face blanch.

"Take cover now." I said in a horse whisper and they got behind some nearby rocks. I reached into my backpack and pulled out a prototype I'd been working on just a few days before I had came to this world. It looked deceptively like a star wars blaster but it was much much more deadly and was specifically designed to blast heartless. I wondered for a moment weather it would be ok to say something along the lines of 'say hello to the devil for me' but decided against it as this was a kidde show and had enough violence without heartless. Then they attacked.

"WHAT'S GOING ON?" The others shouted but I was quickly being overwhelmed by sheer force of numbers, not to mention that it takes about six or seven trinity limits just to kill one proto shadow. So I was in deep doo doo. And there was also the matter of pikablue to attend to. Sometimes I wonder if it would be easier just to keep him in his pokeball.

"GET ACROSS THE BRIDGE!" I shouted "NOW!" I told them as they tried to protest and of course just as they were crossing the wind picked up and broke the bridge. Everyone but Brock managed to get to safety, said gym leader fell into the river below. So instead of staying put like sensible people they ran off to find Brock despite what other horrors awaited. I mean if whoever after Ash is powerful enough to keep hundreds of proto shadows under his command then we are talking SERIOUS EVIL DARK POWERS! It took a solid hour and a half to take out all the heartless and at the end I felt like I had been run over at least 15 times by a semi, not to mention I looked even worse.

"Do something!" It sounds like they were up in that net trap and along came bulbasaur. I decided to rest in a tree nearby and listen to Ash go on about how Brock was washed to sea and taken by pirates.

"You have a crazy imagination!" The girls exclaimed and then Ash muttered

"And then came the storm."

"Ahoy!" Brock shouted and looking much better (Gotta love a pokemorph's regen rate. I can get my arm almost sliced off and as long as I keep it together there won't even be a scar a week later.) I made my presence known. We got them down and Brock told them what happened. He was rescued by a beautiful girl.

"Which doesn't tell us much because Brock think all girls are beautiful." Dust remarked in an undertone

[Yep, he's a regular lady killer.] I answered

"That's even better than pirates!" Ash exclaimed "Unless of course she was a pirate in disguise." That boy's head is one wierd place, almost as wierd as mine and that's saying something. So we went to meet Melanie and in my case a second time.

Dust POV:

We walked through the forest for some time and I was sure we were getting lost. Finally, we came across a log cabin and I gasped at the shear amount of pokemon in the area.

"Melanie," Brock said to a young and pretty girl, the only human I could see beside us. "These are the others I told you about."

"Hello." Ash said.

"It's nice to meet you, Melanie." I smiled wide.

"So your Brock's friend, he told me all about you." Melanie smiled.

"Do all these pokemon belong to you?" Misty asked.

"Of course not." David said. I elbowed him roughly in his ribs. He groaned and rubbed where I had hit him. I did it for Misty because trust me, she would have hit him with her mallet and that would have hurt far worst, even for the psychic.

"This is a place where pokemon are able to rest and relax." Brock explained.

"Like summer camp?" Ash asked.

"I would like to go to summer camp." I commented.

"Well, sort of, but all year long." Brock explained. "See, when pokemon get abandoned or injured, they can come here and Melanie takes care of them until they feel better. Then they leave."

"So, this is a pokemon center, and Melanie is a pokemon doctor." Misty blinked.

"Oh no, I'm not qualified to be a pokemon doctor." Melanie said.

"I bet you would be very good at it." I smiled.

"Thank you." Melanie blushed.

"This is more like a pokemon health spa." Brock said.

"Here, the pokemon don't battle with one another. They can relax and enjoy themselves until they recover." Melanie said.

"That's nice." David said.

"Melanie collects plants to use as medicine. She knows all about which plants can help a pokemon feel better or grow stronger when they're too weak." Brock explained.

"That's nice." I said. Midnight nodded beside me.

"So you and Melanie both love to take care of pokemon." Ash said.

"We do." Brock nodded.

"What's that I smell? Could it be love?" I smirked.

"There could be something else Brock might love." Misty teased with me. Brock's face went red and he ran behind the two girls, wrapping a hand over their mouths.

"Shh, she might hear you." Brock hissed.

"I wonder who put that net up in the tree." Ash wondered.

"Probably the same person who dug the hole." Misty shrugged.

"Or messed up the bridge." I said.

"I'm sorry, I'm the one who set those traps." Melanie apologized. "I wanted to catch pokemon trainers before they reached the village. Since you got caught, I guess they really work."

"But why?" Misty asked.

"There are so many injured pokemon here, I have to protect them." Melanie answered.

"I guess I could understand that." I shrugged.

"I promised Melanie that we wouldn't capture any pokemon." Brock said.

"Did you seal the promise with a kiss?" Misty teased and was rewarded with a whack on the head. "That must mean you really do love her." She got hit again.

"So, I guess I'll have to keep your promise." Ash sighed.

"Only bad guys try to capture sick pokemon." Misty said.

"Hey, it's that oddish." I said and skipped on over. "Hey oddish."

"Oddish." It said, looking up at me. Midnight walked up to me and oddish coward.

"Aw, don't worry. He won't hurt you." I smiled and hugged him before putting him down on his feet.

"Oddish." He smiled. I smiled back before walking over to the other. Oddish followed and snuggled into her leg.

"But are the traps enough for robbers, I mean you'd have to be pretty stupid to fall into one of those holes." Ash said.

"Ash, we've fallen into enough holes ourselves." I reminded him. Then Ash got in a fight with that Bulbasaur that had helped Oddish earlier.

"Please, wait, please!" Melanie begged. "Bulbasaur is only trying to protect oddish. Bulbasaur volunttered to protect our whole village. It protects all the injured pokemon whenever enemies try to attack them. Bulbasaur is the bravest, most loyal pokemon I know."

"…Deep." I said. Bulbasaur started to push at Ash's leg. "Look out now, Ash. Bulbasaur doesn't like you." Midnight started to growl. He really didn't like bulbasaur hurting out friends.

"Bulbasaur doesn't like pokemon trainers, it wants you to leave the village now." Melanie explained.

"But we're not here to capture pokemon." Misty said.

"It's true, bulbasaur. These are our friends." Melanie tried to reason with him.

"Please, everything is alright." I said, rubbing a hand over its head. To everyone's surprise, it seemed to calm down.

"It seems, that Dust has a natural instinct with pokemon." David commented behind me. It was weird, Bulbasaur wasn't fighting me although he was perfectly happy to push at Ash.

"Bulbasaur was worried about the other pokemon, so it decided to be the village body guard. Now that's what I call bravery. It would be great to have a pokemon like that." Ash said. Oddish hopped over to me and jumped into my arms as a large shadow fell over us. What could make that shadow? David tensed but calmed down with a smirk and I saw why. It was team rocket. I calmly stood as well, holding a scared oddish to my chest.

"Today only at Jesse stadium, it's the team rocket pokemon challenge." Jessie smirked from the balloon high above us.

A tube fell to the village and started to suck. It was going to suck up all the pokemon! I came to the frightful realization.

"All pokemon are invited to enter the stadium!" Jesse smirked as if expecting every pokemon to run up to the tube happily.

"Hurry, everybody get inside!" Brock yelled. The hose air started to lift me up a little and I shrieked. I knew I was light but I didn't realize I was _that _light.

We ran to the door when we noticed Bulbasaur was fighting against the hose. Before anyone could do anything, Ash had already ran out and pushing Bulbasaur into the house.

"Pidgey, I choose you!" I yelled as they made it to the cabin. "Peck!" My Pidgey swopped in to the balloon and before anyone could blink, there was a giant slash in it.

"Looks like team rocket's blasting off again!" team rocket yelled as they disappeared into the sky, sparkling like a diamond in the sky.

"Is everyone alright?" Melanie asked as I hugged pidgey and put her back in the pokeball. Midnight curled up with oddish at my feet.

"Is everyone alright?" Melanie asked.

"This village is well protected with bulbasaur around." Ash said.

"Ash, don't you agree bulbasaur would make a fine addition to your team?" Melanie asked.

"Oh yeah, would he ever!" Ash smiled widely.

"I think bulbasaur should go with you." Melanie insisted. "Bulbasaur stayed here to protect the weaker pokemon. But this village is too small, the bulb on its back can't grow, it needs to go out into the world. I know you'll take good care of it. Please, do me this favor, take bulbasaur with you on your journey. He'll be a good companion."

"But what will happen to the village without bulbasaur?" Misty asked. She had a point there.

"Who will protect you?" Brock asked.

"It's true that bulbasaur has done a great job, maybe too great a job. See, these pokemon shouldn't remain here forever and ever. After they recover, the pokemon are supposed to leave but it's too safe here. , none of them want to go away, they don't want to return to the outside world. But I think it's important that they return to the wild. That's where pokemon belong and hopefully, one day they'll find good trainers, like you. Of course, taking care of sick pokemon will always be my mission. Buy I know my job isn't finished until they return where they come from. So it's the day the pokemon leave that is more rewarding to me."

"Melanie, that was beautiful." I sighed.

"So you see, it's time for bulbasaur to leave here. Please take it with you, he won't be a burden. Bulbasaur still has a lot of growing to do. I want it to be in a place where I know it will grow up, strong and happy. I'm sure that place is with you, Ash. And Dust…" Melanie said. What did she want?

"Yeah, Melanie?" I asked.

"I think oddish would be happy with you." Melanie smiled.

"What?" I gasped.

"Oddish was abandoned by his trainer here long ago because his ex-trainer thought he was to weak and soft to others and so far, besides me, you're the only human it ever let itself get close to. Please, would you take him and raise him to be strong and happy."

"I…I will." I smiled with tears in my eyes as Oddish jumped into my arms happily. It was a few minutes later, we were watching a battle between Bulbasaur and Ash.

I felt something at my waist and noticed Midnight poking at my pokeball on my belt. Right, how could I forget that? I smiled at oddish reassuring and opened the pokeball, watching him be absorbed in a red light and my arms suddenly feeling lighter. I had caught oddish and had a new member and friend on my team. That was when Ash caught Bulbasaur.

"Have a safe trip." Melanie said as we got ready to leave for our next great adventure.

"I promise to take good care of bulbasaur." Ash promised.

"I promise to take good care of oddish, he's a member of the team now." I smiled.

"Um, Melanie, I've been thinking, bulbasaur is leaving, I wouldn't mind staying and helping you out." Brock said. Me and David sighed. Couldn't Brock just give it a rest already, I thought.

"That's very kind of you," Melanie smiled. "But we'll be okay. I wouldn't want to keep you from all of your wonderful adventures." Brock was clearly disappointed but understood. We waved goodbye and I hoped that someday, we would see Melanie again.

When we were out of hearing range, Misty asked a question I have been dying to know. "So, what did Melanie say when you told her you love her? Did you kiss her goodbye?"

"That's enough stupid questions." Brock cried. "Would you please stop embarrassing me already? OK, so she's cute, I understand!"

"Brock, you think every girl is cute." I teased.

"Did I miss something?" Ash said. That was Ash for you. Dense as ever. I can't help but wonder, will Ash and Misty ever get together? Will Brock actually meet someone? Would i? Well I knew one way to find out. Just keep one foot in front of the other. After all, a million mile journey started with a single step.


	11. Welcome Charmander

Charmander Arrives:

Dust pov:

"There's nothing but spearow's around here." Ash complained.

"What's wrong with spearows?" I asked curiously. Ash shivered and looked horrified.

"Let's just say he had a bad experience when he first set out." David whispered to me.

"Oh." I nodded.

"Well, that's the least of our worries, isn't it?" Misty asked.

"Just because we're a little lost doesn't mean I have to stop catching all the pokemon I can, does it?" Ash asked.

"Of course not, enjoy yourself." Misty said, rolling her eyes,

"Hey, don't be too hard on him." I said. "We're a bunch of kids traveling the world, we should be happy to get that freedom." I smiled. I had always wanted to go and explore the world but being under eighteen, I was stuck at home.

"I just can't go one step further. We've been looking for viridian city for ten whole days!" Misty shouted that echoed through the forest. It was official. Next time we got to time, ear plugs were going on my mental shopping list.

"Um, there's a bug right on your…" Brock started but even that single sentence sent Misty screaming again.

"AH! Get it away!" She screamed, jumping on Ash. I giggled.

"What would I give for a camera right now." I smirked.

"Your wish has come true." David smirked, pulling a camera from his bag and snapping a picture of our two favorite lovebirds.

"That's going into the blackmail file." I smirked and David nodded, hiding the camera before any of the others could find it.

"Haha, it was just a piece of grass." Brock smiled. Not a good move. He realized that when Misty kicked him in his face.

David's POV

In all honesty I couldn't wait for another chance to beat up on Damian. Anyway Misty was going stir crazy. But when Ash pointed out the right way we were about to set out when we met charmander. Pikablue was cool, calm, and collected but pikachu panicked. Ash tried to catch him but charmander batted the pokeball away. But on the second try he went in and came right back out.

"You can't catch another person's pokemon with a pokeball." Was pokemon training 101 but I wasn't going to enlighten them just yet. When they figured it out we moved on and by the time we got to the pokemon center it was about to rain. I really wanted to go save charmander but I couldn't interfere. I just hope the heartless didn't get him first. We were about to eat when that British punk opened his big mouth. He went on about how he ditched charmander in the forest on that rock.

"That guy makes me really angry." Dust growled and both Brock and I had had enough. When he was laughing about charmander's tail going out I picked him up from behind. Being a blaziken pokemorph defiantly has its perks. We ordered Damian to go get his charmander and the others got on his case. We were just about to fight when Nurse Joy stepped in.

"Well 'scuse me for trying to protect my fellow fire pokemon." I quipped and meandered off.

"It's a Joy full world." Ash said in a dazed voice and then we got Brock back to his senses. Then we all went to save charmander. His tail was really low so I used a cure spell and gave him an emergency flame transfusion. Ash carried him to the center and Nurse Joy got him into the ICU. So we spent the next hour or so just waiting around. I knew charmander would be OK and the next morning he was heading back to the rock. So I got out the old air horn and got Ash, Misty, and Dust out of bed.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" Dust shouted at me.

"Specally for you." I joked and had to dodge a shoe for my trouble. So we went on our way but we couldn't stop thinking about charmander. Along the way Team Rocket put in a pit fall. So when the dirt started giving way I lept to safty.

"Hello down there!" Pikablue called and Team Rocket turned up in rubber suits. But rubber melts. But before I could fire Team Rocket whipped out the pikachu stopper rubber ball bazooka or something like that. I couldn't help myself and started sniggering, until I got caught in the rubber balloon that is...how embarrassing. So we were all trapped until charmander showed up.

"THANK GOODNESS FOR CHARMANDER!" Pikachu cheered

"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!"

Then who should show his ugly mug but Damian himself. Then he said he was glad he abandoned charmander because it made him tough. Then he said training was the most boring part of pokemon training. IT IS THE BEST PART! Damian threw charmander's pokeball but he sent it right back and it hit Damian square in the face.

"That's an improvement." Dust remarked and then Damian got all his pokeballs out and was about to try and crush charmander under them when he got charred by charmander's flamethrower. So of course me, pikachu, and pikablue got in on some of the action. Then Damian turned tail and ran crying "Mummy". So then Ash caught charmander and we continued on to route 24. All's well that ends well.


	12. Here comes Squirtle

Here's the long awaited chapter 12 opening from yours truly, psychicshipping! The return of the dark squirtle squad...not really it just sounds better than here was go again with the squirtle squad.

David's POV

As soon as Ash had fallen into the pit while singing the first season theme I knew that we I was back in the domain of the squirtle squad. After the fall the squirtle squad appeared and I tried to get the jump on them but they dodged. Pikachu and pikablue then proceeded to attack the leader but one of the underlings took the blow for him. Then it turned into an old fashion stare down. Until officer Jenny showed up that is. Then Ash and Dust went through the whole Jenny/Joy extended family thing again. Then officer Jenny told us the story of the squirtle squad.

"It's kind of sad because if they had someone they might not have turned out so bad." Dust remarked and then we left. Soon we came across a river and decided to get some fishing in. Only to get soaked for our troubles. Pikachu went for a thunderbolt but because we were all wet the others got shocked. Hallelujah for volt absorb ability! So we had had enought of the squirtle squad and attacked but pikachu was forced into the river where a goldeen sat waiting for the attack.

"It's times like these that I really come in handy." I remarked and got pikachu out of there in time. But then the squirtle caught us. Not only that but meowth reviled his presence. While tied up Ash bit his tail.

DUST POV:

Meowth yelled, jumping towards the ceiling. It was so screechy, I wished I could cover my ears but because I was tied to a rock, all I could do was winch and hope that Pikachu would be alright. They had Midnight tied by a metal chain around his neck like a leash and he couldn't chew it off. He already tried so many times, I lost count. David, Misty, Brock, and Ash surrounded me. David was tied to a separate rock but had some sort of proof chain that he couldn't break out of, no matter what form he took.

"Don't believe him squirtle, meowth's a big liar." Ash declared.

"He's right, we've known Meowth and his friends for a long time, all they want is you to do what they couldn't," I said.

"She's right, don't believe a word coming out of their mouths!" David yelled, still trying to break his way out of the chains.

"Quiet!" Meowth sneered. He scratched Ash's face and reached for me.

"You really wanna try it!" I sneered with my eyes narrowed. Meowth quickly pulled back, not even bothering to try David.

Meowth turned back to the squirtles, "Who are ya gonna believe? Three humans or a fellow pokemon?" The squirtle squad started to chew and I had a feeling it wasn't for us. Midnight made a low growl in the back of his throat.

Brock told us Pickachu was in bad shape and Ash begged the squirtles to let him go get medicine. The squirtle squad wouldn't let him but Ash started to cry and the squirtles took pity on him but with a catch. He must be back by noon tomorrow or the girls would get their hair dyed purple.

"WHAT!" I roared.

"PURPLE!" Misty roared with me. "Why you mangy little flea trap, when I get out of here…!"

"Misty, Dust, don't worry, I'll be back, ok." Ash said and left.

I fell asleep shortly after but was awakened by a blast of water to the face. "HEY!" I roared. The squirtle that had blasted me pouted and looked down.

"Oh, I'm sorry, don't be sad," I said. Squirtle looked up at me but I couldn't see his eyes because of the circular sunglasses he wore.

We were untied and told that dying our hair was a trick and we walked out of the cave. "YES! Sunlight!" I cheered.

"You're a little to excited," David said, his hands behind his head.

"HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE STUCK IN A CAVE FOR…never mind," I groaned when I realized that he had been in the same predicament as herself. David smirked.

About five minutes later, I head wailing only to realize it was Ash. "Hey, what's with all the crying?" I asked. He jumped up, looking at our group surprised.

"Where's the medicine?" Misty asked.

"Oh, it's right here," Ash said and handed her the potion. She quickly went to spraying Pikachu, I rubbed Midnight's head. "So, Misty, Dust, you're hair isn't purple?"

"Nope, I'm still a red head!" Misty grinned.

"Yep, no one is touching my locks of hair!" I couldn't help but grin myself.

"The squirtle squad was bluffing," Brock told us.

"Of course, they couldn't have told us that, hours ago," I pouted. I had been so tense, I vowed years ago I would never get my hair dyed and I thought the squirtle squad was going to ruin that.

"They play tricks but they'd never change a girl's natural hair color," Misty added. Everything seemed pretty peaceful. Should of known it wouldn't last…especially with team rocket around.

An explosion echoed in my ears and the wind ruffled my hair.

"To protect the world from devastation,"

"To unite all people within our nation,"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love,"

"To extend our reach to the stars above,"

"Jesse."

"James."

"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light."

"Surrender now or prepare to fight."

"Meowth, grab the Pikachu and climb up the latter!" Jessie yelled.

"And the rest of you are in for a real blast!" James joked. I could see David's eyes narrowed, I wanted to hurt them. They have to go through me first if they wanted Pikachu.

We started running to the cave but as I got there, I turned and saw a horrible sight. There was a squirtle who was on his back and couldn't get back up. Midnight whimpered between me and David. Bombs were flying closer and Ash was using his body to shield squirtle. When the smoke cleared, I was relieved to find them both okay.

"Look out!" Misty shouted as more flew towards us but David took care of those. I noticed, to my shock, that Squirtle picked Ash, a ninety pound ten year old boy, up with his small body, and ran with speed to fast for a squirtle. I screamed as squirtle tripped and they landed on me. The squirtle listened to Ash when he was told and water gunned team rocket.

"Look!" I cried. Pikachu was flying through the air. Ash caught him but that was the least of our troubles. Now, the whole forest was caught on fire and we had to do something quick!

"If that keeps burning, the whole town could go up in smoke!" Officer Jenny said, pulling up beside us.

"Listen, if you squirtle work together and combine your water gun, I think you can put out the fire," Ash said. The squirtle's nodded and set to work on washing out the fires. How I wished I had a water pokemon right now to help.

But Weedle would be fried, Oddish wouldn't survive for a second, Pidgey would probably cause more harm than good feeding the fire with its air, and Midnight wouldn't be much help either. I needed a tentacool or tentacrule, they would be good at a time like this and who knows, it might be fun to train one and watch it grow, just like with all my pokemon.

Finally, the water was put out and we all walked calmly back to town.

We stood next to Officer Jenny who stood before the squirtle squad. Behind them stood the townsfolk. "And so, we gratefully award this certificate to the Squirtle Squad. Thank you for saving our town from the fire. Because of your skill and bravery, we proudly appoint you the town's fire fighters," Officer Jenny held the squad put on jackets and we were soon to leave the town.

"So where's next?" I asked cheerily.

"Celadon City," David said.

"Hey, that's squirtle following us," Misty said. That was how Ash got his squirtle. Midnight rubbed his head against my hand. I smiled and scratched behind his ear before we continued on.


	13. Bill's Lighthouse

Dust's POV:

"Why do we always end up lost?" I griped, Midnight padded along beside me, annoyed and tired but she kept going.

"Because, we follow Ketchum everywhere," David grumbled.

"Well, I have two gym badges and that's all that counts," Ash said.

"Yeah, but I'm sure the other trainers didn't get lost in the woods all the time," I said. "I need a hot bath." I cracked my neck, sleeping on the ground wasn't my idea of fun. One or two nights, maybe, but not the six nights they've been traveling. As least she had a sleeping bag and Midnight to stay warm.

"And besides, you only got those badges because Brock and my sister felt sorry for you," Misty declared.

"Well, I have pokemon that I caught fair and square," Ash insisted. Didn't he realize that most of those pokemon joined him, he didn't really fight and capture, well, there was Caterpie but I think that's the only one. "I've got Pikachu, Pidgeotto, Butterfree, Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle."

"Caught them?" Misty asked. "Ash, all your pokemon followed you," See, she agreed with me.

"Well, there all mine and that's all that counts for a pokemon trainer," Ash declared. I rolled my eyes and sighed, here they went again.

"This may come as a shock for you, but real pokemon trainers actually catch pokemon on their own," Misty shot back.

"You never give me a break," Ash muttered and stomped off, saying something about catching another pokemon. I sighed. "I'll go find him," I grumbled, putting my hands behind my head and walked off, Midnight following quickly behind.

David's POV

I had 'On the road again' stuck in my head and not even working on quantum physics could knock it out. And besides that I had a nagging feeling that I was missing something about that kid and whoever was behind the plot on Ash's life. WHAT WAS SO SPECIAL ABOUT THIS ASH? I had done everything I could think of to determine weather there was anything extraordinary about him but all my tests came up negative. Whenever this I get stuck like this I always end up getting hammered sooner or later. Like when I couldn't figure out what my dreams meant back when I went around Hoenn. I ended up getting my butt kicked by a possessed plakia and some heartless. But I digress and unless I missed my guess we were about to meet up with Bill.

"I don't see why Dust and Misty are giving Ash such a hard time." Pikabule remarked and just then Brock jumped on the bandwagon.

"You're always putting me down! But I won't let you get in my way! Stand back and watch me!." Ash shouted as he ran with pokeball in hand.

"Pikablue, they were wrong when they said those who don't learn their history are doomed to repeat it. I learned my history very well and yet I'm repeating it right now." I complained but you have to admit reruns are almost never as great as a new episode. Unless of course you notice something you missed before. I'm getting off track again aren't I? Well Ash and ran onto a beach in hopes of getting a new pokemon. At first Ash didn't see any pokemon but then a tiny krabby showed up. I had almost forgotten how small the krabby was. But he had just as much spunk as I remembered. When Ash caught the karbby and the pokaball vanished Ash almost had a heart attack. But we explained to him that he was only allowed to keep six pokemon and the rest were sent to Oak's lab.

"So krabby's with professor Oak? Now I'm doubly worried." Ash said

"That is crazy Ash. Why would Oak eat your krabby?" I asked but Ash was worried just the same. Misty and Dust were more worried about finding a bed to sleep in.

"I'm sick and tired of laying on the ground in a sleeping bag every night. One or two nights are fine. But almost two weeks?" Dust muttered

"You're never going to survive the coming storm with that attitude." I remarked and she jumped about a foot in the air. It seems she had forgotten about my superior hearing.

"What storm?" Dust questioned

"Several things, not the lest of which is Mewtwo. But mainly I'm worried about a great battle that the signs seem to be pointing towards." I answered and the others were out of earshot heading towards Bill's lighthouse.

"MEWTWO?" Dust shrieked, "I forgot about mewtwo. I'm not looking forward to that."

"Mind like a steel trap I see" I quipped and pikablue snickered

"That's right, laugh it up you two! It'll make me feel less guilty about throwing you both into the sea while you sleep." She threatened but just between you and me I was more worried about her hurting herself trying to pick me up. I mean someone who can't even stand more than a few days out in the great outdoors? Anyway we caught up with the others and about an hour and a half later we were at the light house.

"Farther then it looks isn't it?" Ash remarked and Brock commented about how the lighthouse looked weird. Poor Bill had been eating nothing but tofu since his cook and gone off on vacation and he had gotten himself stuck in a kabuto costume. On a side note: WHY IS THERE A PICUTRE OF MEWTWO ON BILL'S DOOR? Ash called the professor and I guess that it's a national cook holiday or something because professor Oak's cook had also gone on vacation and he was also eating tofu. I have a thing about tofu. I don't know why but I just can't stand the stuff. Back on track, the professor assured that Ash's krabby was far too small to make a meal with. But Gary's krabby would make a fine dinner and that of course got Ash hot under the collar. To add salt in the wound Oak also mentioned that Gary had caught 45 pokemon.

"Don't take it so hard Ash, it's not like you're in the same class as Gary." Dust commented but she only made things worse. Back to Bill being stuck in a kabuto costume. Oak asked Bill to tach Ash and when the lights came on everyone else got the pants scared off of them. Ash set Bill free and he explained that he used the costume to try and understand the pokemon. Bill told us that when the earth was young even before it had cooled down many kinds of pokemon existed. Of course any time traveler worth his or her salt knew this and when I told Bill that I knew of over 650 kinds of pokemon he nearly flipped.

"Even then there are still so many other pokemon that might be waiting just beyond the horizon." Bill remarked after he regained his cool. He was right. No one rightly knows just how many pokemon there are or have been or will be. Then Bill told us about the giant dragonite. He was under the impression that the dragon type was the biggest pokemon out there but that was far from the truth. Then the dragonite showed up and Team Rocket showed up and you can guess the rest.

"Does Team Rocket ever change?" Dust asked me

"Not for years and years and even then the only thing that changes is they don't blast off anymore." I answered and the next morning after a fairly pointless adventure we said goodbye and headed towards the next gym.

**DUST'S POKEMON:**

MIDNIGHT/UMBREON-level 10

WEEDLE—6-7/10

PIDGEY—8 -16/36

ODDISH-6-21/leaf stone or sun stone

**BADGES: **

Pewter-succeed

Cerulean-lost


	14. Lt Surge

The World of Pokemon

**Sorry for all of you reading this, I know Mskitty and I have been very slow in getting up chapters. Anyway, this is chapter 14 which means we are going to see Lt. Surge. Big round of applause for the electricity type gym leader! Just another reminder, particularly for this chapter, this story contains spoilers! **

** David's POV:**

The Sun was just thinking about poking over the horizon and I felt like crap. I had a good reason why I felt like crap but that didn't change the fact that I felt like said by product. I had just gotten back to camp and Dust saw me first and screamed. Did I really look that bad? But if I looked anything like I felt then that would be a yes. I knew my shirt and pants were both torn to shreds and I had many several slashes running up and down various parts of my body but maybe I should have tried to clean myself up before heading back to camp.

"What happened to you?" Dust shouted but I wasn't paying much attention. I was busy digging around in my backpack for an elixir or hi-potion but the first thing I found was a mega potion. So I just downed that. By this point Dust and Misty were getting pretty mad at me for not responding. If I was able to respond I would have and so I stuck out my tongue to show them why I wasn't telling them what had happened. Everyone, even Brock and pikablue, recoiled at the sight of my shredded tongue. It wasn't bleeding anymore but that's only because I had blocked almost all of the blood flow to my tongue.

"Why don't you tell us using your telepathy?" Misty asked and then I gave her a look that said 'don't you think I already thought of that?' and I showed them one of the wounds on my arm. You could see the darkness festering in it. They knew that my psychic powers don't mix well with darkness. I downed a Hi-potion and then some seditives and felt myself slipping off into a healing trance, but that didn't calm my hyper active mind.

Two hours earlier

I was up a bit too early for my liking but I suppose it could be helped now. I headed down to the river to fetch a pail of water.

"I didn't know losers like you got up this early." Came a sneering voice that sounded awfully familiar. I brushed over the surrounding area to see if I could find where it was coming from. There he was, sitting on a tree branch.

"What do you want?" I shot back at him

"My my, not a morning person are we? I was actually thinking about how to ambush you later but you saved me the trouble." He laughed and I drew my keyblade, Ultima weapon because it was far too early for this and I just wanted him gone.

"Are you sure you want to fight me now? It's no fun fighting someone who's only half awake." He leered

"Come down here and just see how 'half awake' I really am!" I shouted

"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you." He replied in a sing song voice and jumped down and drew a blade that looked eerily similar the void gear, Vanitas's keyblade in birth by sleep. The battle was on and he quickly showed me that his skill with a plain old sword was nothing compared to how he weilded this blade of darkness. It was almost as bad as the time I fought Sephiroth. But I was able to hold my own but then our fighting attracted an A guardian, the heartless that lurks behind Ansem seeker of Darkness/Xheonort's Heartless. From there it went downhill very quickly. The only reason Ansem is so hard in the game is because he has that A guardian to do all those attacks and protect his sorry butt. I launched an Ars arcanum and managed to hit the mysterious guy serveral times but then he dodge rolled away and as I turned to unleash a combo on him he vanished.

"Where are you?" I shouted and he laughed. I turned around and found him right behind that A guardian. I raced forward and sliced and diced the stupid heartless but for all the good it did me I might as well have saved my energy. Then it hit me, this thing was getting an energy boost from that psychopath! I finally used magnera to draw away the A guardian and was right about to unleash a devistating arial combo when he vanished again!

"Take this!" Came his voice from behind me and I turned around only to get a dark blizzaga in the face. Of course while I shouted in surpirse and pain that $%&* A guardian proceeded to grab my tongue and start treating it as a scratching post. By this point I probably have shouted some things that would have gotten my mouth washed out with soap but not only was my tongue now in shreds but I could already feel that the wounds were infected with darkness. That meant that I couldn't heal them at all with curaga and it would take at least a week to heal. Then they started combo attacking me like crazy, where one would drop off the attack the other would start. Then they both backed off after the A guardian had unleashed that shock slash attack, the one that uses energy disks to attack, that HURTS LIKE H E DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS!

"Is the poor loser hurt? I can make it all go away. JUST STAND STILL WHILE I RUN YOU THROUGH!" He charged at me but that was his first and final mistake of the day. I was so pissed off that I kicked him where it really hurts and then blasted him with several aura cannons. He opened a corridor of darkness and left the fight. I was shivering and shaking from loss of blood and adrenaline but there was no way I was going to let myself get beat by this heartless right after I had taken down that son of a gun. So I activated my sync blade ability and chose oblivion as my second blade. With what little strenght I had left I just went to town with reaction commands and magic. When the A guardian fell I was compleatly wiped out.

"How's that for half awake?" I asked the air and instantly regretted it because my tongue reminded me that it was cut and bleeding in sever placed with a sharp pain. I did a quick mental check of my wounds and discovered that 90% of all my wounds were infected with darkness. I made a few quick calculations and figured that even with my rate of healing it would take about two and a half weeks before I was compleatly healed and at least a week before I could talk again, all because of the darkness. I decided to head back to camp before a darkside or something worse decided to show up. With my luck Sephiroth was lurking right around the courner.

At present

I came out of the healing trance and found that my psychic powers were, if not compleatly restored, at the point where I could use telepathy again. I told the others what had happened (Leaving out the gory stuff and the swearing) and for a moment no one spoke.

"That no good son of a...skunk!" Dust shouted although I could tell she had been on the verge of saying something a lot worse than skunk. On the topic of swearing it was lucky that I was the only one around who could understand pikablue because he was swearing a blue streak, although I feel I should mention that pikachu swears are nothing like human swears. The others all made similar remarks about the evil little monster and we got on with breakfast while I bandaged myself and reparied my clothes. We then headed on towards vermillion city. We got there about an hour later and thanks to high winds we were a very dirty bunch of kids.

"Ah Lt. Surge, good times all around." Pikablue said in whispy rememberance.

[What are you going on about? I'm the one who fought Surge.] I remarked

"That's why they were good times, I saw how badly pikachu got beat up." Pikablue replied and I refrained from face palming but only because it would hurt to much to do so. We went to the nearest pokemon center to have the pokemon checked out and then in came some poor ratatta who had just gotten fried by Surge. I didn't see what the kid's problem was, fried ratatta or raticate is delicous. Nevermind, that was insensitive. So after Ash and Misty got into a fight and Nurse Joy mentioned that two people who fight really care about each other we went to get Ash and Dust's pokemon. Just then a pidgey went by in really bad shape.

[Who goes up against an electric type gym leader WITH A PIDGEY?] I exclaimed but so only pikachu and pikablue could hear me.

"Don't you care about me winding up like that pidgey?" Pikachu pleaded with Ash

"Yeah, your right." Ash said and pikachu let out a sigh of relief, but it came much too soon because Ash proclaimed that it wouldn't be a problem because pikachu would win. After bribing pikachu we finally headed to the gym. Surge was just as I remembered him, a mountain that had learned to walk and talk and train pokemon very well. He called Ash and Me babies and then insulted our pikachu.

"WHY YOU..." Pikablue shouted but was quickly drowned out by pikachu.

"YOU POMPOUS MUSCLE BOUND MORON!" Needless to say both electric types were furious at being called baby pokemon. Then Surge sent out his raichu.

[Big whoop, it's a fat pikachu. I could beat him in my sleep.] I remarked.

"Oh, so baby wants to shoot his mouth off? I deal with you right after I get finished with Jr. over here." Surge said and after pikachu got his butt kicked and Ash ran to the pokemon center with Misty, Dust, and Brock. I decided to add insult to injury I used my trainer's strength: water type keyblade to change my jolteon form into vaporeon form. I kicked raichu's butt and Lt. Surge was shocked, if you'll excuse the pun. I got the badge and headed over to the pokemon center to see how pikachu was doing.

Dust's POV:  
In the hospital room, me, Midnight, Misty, Ash, and Brock surrounded and injured Pikachu. "Pikachu, I'm glad you're okay." Ash said relieved but Pikachu just turned away. Midnight whimpered and I sighed. I knew that look, that utter look of despair. My mom had looked that way a few years ago when we thought my dad had left and never came back. But he did a few weeks later and she was happy again.

"Pikachu got hurt pretty badly." Brock commented. Apparently, he could see it to.

"I can see that." Ash glared.

"Physical pain isn't what he meant." Dust said quietly, brushing her blonde hair out of her face.

"What do you mean?" Ash asked.

"They mean his spirit." David answered.

"Pikachu was overpowered by that raichu." Brock added.

"That's right, Ash." Misty nodded.

"We'll try harder!" Ash cried. "We'll win next time if Pikachu tries harder!"

"I think Pikachu tried its best the last time." Misty said.

"Pikachu is strong…but not strong enough to beat that raichu, at least not yet." I said softly.

"There is one way you might win," someone said. I jumped and turned to the door where Nurse Joy was walking in, holding a small chest in her hands. "I'm sorry, I overheard your conversation and I just thought maybe…"

"How can we win?" Ash asked curious.

"A while ago, I came across this." Nurse Joy said, opening the box to reveal a yellow stone.

"What's that?" I asked, tilting my head to the side.

"It's a thunder stone," David answered me.

"A thunder stone?" Ash asked.

"With it, you can evolve Pikachu into a raichu," Brock told the group.

"I could evolve Pikachu into a raichu?" Ash asked. "Then Pikachu might be strong enough to win."

"Yeah, but there's probably a price to it," I said, thinking hard.

"She's right." Nurse Joy said. "You have to be careful, because if you use the thunder stone, there's no chance in changing him back."

"Pikachu, what do you think?" Ash asked, holding the small stone out to him. I was mesmerized by the tiny stone. It was so pretty and shiny.

I snapped out of it and left, Midnight lapping to keep up at my heels. I decided that I was going to do the contest in this town. The sooner I get ten badges, the sooner I could hopefully win title. With only one badge, I had some way to go.

About five minutes later, I stood outside the arena building they held the competition in and I shrieked…loud. The contest wouldn't be on for another two weeks due to a pipe burst.

I took a deep breath and groaned, feeling disappointment. And I was so close to. Midnight nudged my hand and I looked down at him. "Yeah, I guess you're right. We should go and see if Ash won that badge yet." I said, slowing walking away from the building.

"Well…look who it is," Someone said behind me. Someone familiar. I turned and saw a brown haired boy leaning against the building. Midnight growled, his ears flattening to his head. I narrowed my eyes.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded.

"I could ask you the same question," he said. "Dusk,"

"It's Dust," I corrected, eyes hardening. "And I would say it would be a pleasure to know you're name, but it's not."

"Ouch, do you always talk to people like this?" he questioned. I put a hand on Midnight's head so he wouldn't attack.

"Only annoying boys like you," I said.

"I'm not a boy I'm a man." He smirked.

"You wish," I scoffed, turning to leave. I was walking away when I heard him yell something. I turned around, "What?" I demanded.

"Derek," he said, I looked at him confused. "That's my name…Derek," I crossed my eyes confused, but nodded anyway and left to Ash's battle. Only when I was reaching the door that I realized I never told him my name.

Midnight started bumping into my back and I forced myself to go inside, deciding to think about Derek some other day.

I walked in just in time to hear, "As proof of your victory, a thunder badge." Lt. Serge said, handing Ash his badge.

"Aw man, I missed the battle?" I pouted, pushing my encounter with Derek out of my mind.

"Yep," David said.

"The thunder badge!" Ash cheered. "And it's all mine!"

"Way to go, Ash." I smiled, putting a hand on his hat covered head. This boy was becoming like a little brother to me.

"Thanks," Ash smiled.

"Nice victory Ash, you're no baby." Serge said.

"Congratulations, Ash, Pikachu," Brock said.

Midnight licked Pikachu's cheeks and the small pika rubbed at his little red cheek.

"You finally got your own badge," Misty smiled.


	15. The Unsinkable Ship

Aboard the St. Anna:

Dust POV:

In was a beautiful sunny day and we, as in I, David, Pikablue, Ash, Midnight, Pikachu, Misty, and Brock were walking along a dock looking at all the ships. The sun felt like heaven on my skin after spending so much time in the forest. There wasn't much woods I could actually explore back home so this was a whole new experience to me that I was getting used to.

"I'd love to cross the ocean on a ship like this," Ash said.

"I don't think so." I gulped, looking at a particular big ship. Water, I was fine with, I loved to swim but on a ship in the middle of the ocean. If the ship went under, I was as good as gone.

"Yeah, just think of all the pokemon we'd be able to see along the way." Brock said. They were completely unaware of my fear. David chuckled.

"What are you laughing at!" I demanded.

[You're scared of boats!] David laughed.

"I am not!" I cried, my face turning beat red. I was this close to hurting him and it wouldn't be no feminine slap.

"We could never afford a cruise like that." Brock sighed and Misty looked brokenhearted but I was okay with that. But could you blame me?

There was a loud noise and I blinked as streamers came from nowhere, surprising everyone but David. "Congratulations! You guys are way lucky, you get to go on a super deluxe sea cruise!" Two familiar looking girls in school uniforms cheered, jumping in front of us. But all I heard was 'deluxe sea cruise'. Not good.

But then I got a closer look at the two and couldn't stop myself from laughing. JAMES FROM TEAM ROCKET WAS WEARING A DRESS! How sad could they get? The two 'girls' glared at me, obviously resisting the urge to throw out their pokeballs. But I knew I would be okay, Midnight would protect me if they tried anything.

The two explained how their friends and them couldn't go on the cruise and thought that we looked like some cool pokemon trainers. Throwing the tickets at Ash, they took off running.

"Do you think it's safe, it's a team Rocket trap." Brock said. In the end, we choose to go, but only because David had to pull me at my wrists and drag me on the St. Anne, Midnight trotting along at my feet.

Inside the main room were everything a pokemon trainer could think of. Now that I was on the boat, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was, as long as I didn't look outside or I'll probably be sick.

Pushing past a crowd of people, I noticed there was a battle between a ratacate and starmie. The raticate won after crushing the starmie. I winched, holding onto Midnight. Midnight was like my lifeline at the moment, so I wouldn't go running off the ship and into the ocean. That was when Ash decided he wanted to battle him and surprisingly, he won.

I backed away, disappearing into the crowd and was starting to freak out when I lost sight of the others, even Midnight! I had three great fears. Thunder storms, oceans, and being alone.

Backing away, I jumped when I bumped into someone. "Sorry," I mumbled.

"Of course you are, Dust." A cold, calm, and collected voice said. I jumped, realizing the man knew my name and he sounded familiar and so I turned a feeling of dread in my stomach.

"Derek!" I yelped. Of course it would be him. Derek stood in front of me with a smirk on his face.

"Who else?" He questioned.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"What does it look like, I'm enjoying a cruise although by the way you're freaking out, I would say you weren't."

"I am not freaking out!" I cried, stomping on his foot. He yelped and started jumping while holding onto his foot. I stormed away, unaware that Derek was watching me leave with a look of pure surprise on his face. I didn't know that I was one of the few, male or female, to ever look at him without fear.

David's POV

Back aboard the St. Anne. This was going to be fun because this time around I was more than ready for Team Rocket. On other notes, Dust was missing. I spotted her walking away from that kid we had seen in Cerulean city! She had obviously stomped on his foot. But before I could investigate my handheld beeped at me.

"Oh well, I can check up on Dust later." I muttered and looked at the screen. I felt my jaw drop. I think I finally knew why this 'bad man' wanted this Ash and I had stumbled upon it by accident. After all, it was only a matter of curiosity that had caused me to look for it.

[Well this is a surprising change of events.] Lucario remarked, ever since I had been maimed he flatly refused to stay in his pokeball. He said that if I couldn't protect myself then he would have to be my body guard .I went to get Dust.

"Dust!" I shouted and she jumped nearly a foot in the air. I then realized that she was scared of being alone. This was made obvious by the fact that she ran up and gave me a death grip of a hug.

"Where were you guys?" She cried

"Over there." I pointed to where Ash, Misty, and Brock were. "Anyway, that's not important. I'm pretty sure I've discovered why the 'bad man' wants Ash."

"Well don't just stand there! Out with it!" Dust shouted and I told her to keep it down.

"Well it turns out that this Ash has the point of unity." I stated

"The what?" She asked

"The point of unity is like the center of a spider's web. It keeps everything else together. Every dimension has one and it keeps that dimension together. Usually it is in a place that is really hard to get to. Like the singularity of a black hole or it's out of sync with the universe or both. But for some reason this one has taken residence inside of Ash." I explained

"So why does the 'bad man' want this point of unity?" Dust inquired

"If Ash is killed then this dimension will unravel. I'm assuming that this 'bad man' wants to kill Ash to study what happens to the dimension and the point of unity as it dissolves so he can replicate it and effectively hold all of reality hostage." I told her

"That is freaking evil!" Dust exclaimed and I caught sight of Ash trading his butterfree.

"Now we know why we're here." I commented

"But what can I do? You're a pokemorph, a super psychic, an excellent trainer, and a keyblade warrior! I'm just a human girl with a few pokemon." She muttered

"I don't know why you're here." I told her, no use in sugar coating it. "But fate works in odd ways. I'm sure there's something you can do and it will show itself in due time."

"I just hope it's sooner rather than later because I hate feeling useless!" Dust cried

"I don't think you're useless." Midnight comforted and Dust smiled while rubbing midnight behind her ear.

"Well, we'd best be going and checking on Ash. I think Team Rocket's about to attack." I remarked and we went to find Ash. By now he was probably sulking over butterfree. Then Team Rocket attacked now was the moment I had been waiting for!

"HEY TEAM ROCKET!" I shouted

"What' punk?" One of the grunts asked

"I've got a surprise for you! Go, celebi, jirachi, victini, and rioku!" I shouted as I enlarged four pokeballs. Pikablue and lucario were already ready for action. Those onboard who were form Johto stared in awe at the two legendries from their home region.

"WHERE DID YOU GET ALL THSOE LEGENDARIES?" Dust shouted

"At the end of my first journey Arceus offered me the help of all the legendries. But being legendries, the have their pride. So I had to beat each and every one of them and then catch them. All except Arceus, of course. That's how I came to have the legendries." I informed her as Ash rallied the pokemon trainers to attack Team Rocket.

"That's amazing!" Dust exclaimed and then I told my pokemon to show no mercy. With that rioku let out a battle roar and the all attacked. I was enjoying myself immensely and then I spotted that kid again, hanging from one of the banisters on a higher level. I was still a bit weary of him but he didn't seem to be causing any trouble. Then all the pikachu and rioku all let Team Rocket have it with thunderbolt.

"That's the way to do it!" Pikablue cheered and then all the charmander got together with victini and attacked with flamethrower. Next up was all the geodude with jirachi lending a hand. They all used rollout while jirachi gave them an extra boost with psychic. After that it was the bulbasaur and celebi. The bulbasaur were using vine whip and celebi was boosting the power of the grass type moves as well as using magical leaf.

"Go midnight, use shadow ball!" Dust ordred and then Ash made to release his butterfree only to remember that he had raticate. Ash was now feeling really guilty and went to get his butterfree back. Finally the pikachu and rioku gave Team Rocket one last thunderbolt. They all went blasting off agian. All except those who normally blast off, Jesse, James, and meowth.

[That was fun!] Jirachi exclaimed

"Victory!" Victini cheered

"Good riddance to bad rubbish." Rioku growled

"Let's do it again!" Celebi cried

"All in good time." I promised and recalled them. Then a huge storm came upon us. Looks like another of Dust's fears have emerged. The ship began shaking violently. Meanwhile Ash was getting his butterfree back. Meanwhile the captain said the ship was unsinkable.

"That sounds an awful lot like the last words of the Titanic." Dust gulped and then the captain hopped aboard one of the life boats and said he was only 'testing' it. After that everyone else panicked and scrambled to the life boats.

"Come on Ash, we've gotta go, this ship is sinking!" Misty shouted at Ash but when he got his pokeball back the ship shook and he dropped it. So we all went chasing after it. Ash finally got the pokeball but not before the ship flipped over. We all hit our heads and the ship began to sink. Everyone else was KO'd, even lucario.

"Everyone always said I had a hard head." I quipped and took to watching over Team Rocket and the group. I knew it would at least be 3 hours before they woke up. That was a lot of time to burn.

Due to cuircumstances well within our control (and my guilty conscious) we will be updating no less than once every other week. Barring life threatening illnesses and tech difficulties of course. This is psychicshipping signing off for this chapter!


	16. Getting Out

The world of pokemon

I bet you didn't expect to hear from us again so soon. Well I just couldn't leave our heroes to such a watery fate for long. This is psychicshipping starting off chapter 16!

David's POV

The three hours were almost up and I was just getting ready to send up a message in a bottle to the officer Jenny that thought we were dead. I went outside and sent it up. I followed invisible and just as she was saying that we were dead. She then spotted the bottle and brought it up. She then began to read it.

"To whom it may concern, we are alive. The St. Anne flipped over completely keeping breathable air inside the ship. We are working on escaping. We will contact you at earliest convenience to inform you of our continued survival. Signed, the seven who didn't make it off the ship."

With that taken care of, the relatives of all wouldn't cry their eyes out. I headed back down to the ship. After a little bit they finally woke up. Ash was the last one and he was hanging upside down. He then proceeded to fall on pikachu.

"The things I put up with." Pikachu groaned and Dust was currently breathing with a brown paper bag. I felt sorry for the kid, I really did. She eventually calmed down enough so we could start exploring. We needed to get to the deck but that was under water. So I switched keyblades to trainer's strength: water type and changed into vaporeon form. I then followed Misty's goldeen.

[If we find a way out we'll bring you something.] I told them and we took off, only to find a nearly drowned Team Rocket. When we brought them back everyone else nearly jumped out of their skin. I changed back and used curaga on them. They recovered quickly and tried to challenge us to a battle

"STOP!" Dust shouted but it was too late. The extra weight of the pokemon caused the balance to tilt in one direction. I didn't move but everyone else fell in the direction of the tilt. Ash sent all the pokemon to the other side of the ship but then it tilted in the other direction. Finally all the pokemon except geodude and lucario went to the other side and the ship balanced.

[That was too close for comfort.] Lucario remarked and then all the pokemon except lucario, the pikachu, meowth, and midnight were called back. We then declaired truce, but pikachu shocked meowth. Misty then said that she had built a compleat scale modle of the St. Anne and knew the structural integrity and all that good stuff.

"We're saved!" Pikablue cheered and we made our way to the hull so we could cut a hole an escape. I just hope no heartless show up. Particularly a boss, those tend to be heavy.

Dust POV:

At least I wasn't stuck down here in this large ship by myself. If I were, I probably would have freaked out more and ended up drowning myself.

Running to the hull, Brock made Onix make himself a staircase so we could make it to the next floor. I was the last one and David had a tight hold on my wrist so I wouldn't fall off. After all, we were getting pretty high and there were no railing.

"Hey, what you all doing?" someone asked from below. I turned to look down but only got dizzy when I saw how high we were. I slid and ended up falling off, David let go of my hand surprised and instead of the hard drop like I expected; I landed on something much softer.

"Well, what do you know." A voice said above me and I opened my eyes only to realize that Derek had caught me in his ears. My face turned red, I squeaked and jumped out of his arms, my back to everyone.

David jumped off Onix and stood in front of my protectively. "What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"Same as you, I assume." Derek shrugged. "None of us could get on a lifeboat obviously."

"Who's he?" Ash asked from on top of Onix. Brock and Misty stood with him near Onix's head.

"Just a jerk," I answered, turning around when I felt the heat of my cheeks calm down a little.

"That's not something a girl says to someone who saves them from a deadly fall." Derek smirked, pushing his brown hair out of his eyes only for it to fall back.

"Hardly a deadly fall," I glared. "I probably wouldn't have got worse than a sprain ankle."

"Actually, more like a broken leg or arm." David noted.

"Shut up." I glared.

"Hurry up, let's get to the hull." Misty said. David started back up Onix but I was frozen. After my fall, I wasn't sure if I wanted to try again. I was surprised when Derek knelt down in front of me with his back to me.

"Huh?" I asked confused.

"Come on, I'll carry you to the top." Derek said, not looking at me. He kept his gaze ahead of him. I was surprised but nodded, a slow smile spreading across my face.

"Thanks," I said quietly, climbing onto his back. He hooked his arms under my legs and stood. I was just happy I was wearing jeans and not a skirt. Hooking my legs around his waist, I buried my face in his shoulder, somehow feeling he wouldn't drop me or trip himself, while counting the seconds until we reached the top. Once we did, he knelt back down and eased me onto my feet. David quickly stepped between up. It was like having a protective older brother I never had.

The lights were off, so we used Ash's charmander to light the way. We made it to a room but there was no floor between the two doors and there was a large fire on the floor below us. I gulped. How were we going to make it past this?

James and Jessie did a 'how they will always remember each other' thinking they were going to die.

"There has to be a way to the other side and we just haven't thought of it." Misty said.

"I've got it!" Ash suddenly exclaimed and tossed a pokeball. Bulbasaur emerged and Midnight yelped surprised when the pokemon appeared right next to him. Ash commanded Bulbasaur to use vine whip and the pokemon's vines whipped to the other side so it was some kind of vine bridge. I just knew I was going to have to cross over it. Nightmare.

This time, it was David who put me on his back before Derek could and we all made it to the other side. We almost accidently left James, Jessie, and Meowth but we came back for them.

Making it to the hull, charmander used his fire attack to cause a hole in the ship's bottom and water rushed in. I squeaked, jumping onto Derek before the water could reach him. He was surprised but wrapped his arms around me anyway.

"Come on, Dust, it's barely ankle length. Just hold your breath when we go." David said, pulling me off of Derek and setting me on my feet. The water was freezing and I shivered. Derek and David glared at each other over my head. Misty, Ash, and David called out their water types. Derek and I ended up tied onto Ash's squirtle.

Doing what David said, I held my breath as we were pulled under the water, Derek keeping a steady hand on my wrist while my other hand was holding onto my rope. David and Midnight swam by and we all headed up to the surface.

It was getting tough to breeze and I was getting dizzy. A few tears came out and got lost in the water of the sea.

We burst through the surface and I gulped in large mouthfuls of air. Finding a piece of wreckage, we used it as a raft and everyone climbed off, untying the ropes around our waists. Team rocket never surfaced. Now, to find dry land and then I would be in heaven.

"I remember the story of Noah. He sent a bird to find land." Brock said. Ash sent his pidgeotto and I sent my Pidgey to find land. They returned later on, they didn't have a branch or something to show they had found land. Instead, they dropped Jessie, James, and Meowth on the raft but something was wrong. Were they dead! I gulped.

"Their dead!" Ash gasped. But that was when Midnight 'accidently' stepped on Meowth's tail and he woke up with a shout, waking up Jessie and James and everyone but David screamed surprised.

A few hours later, we were still drifting in the ocean. I was tired, cold, hungry, and getting sick from the waves but I had a strong stomach so I hadn't actually gotten sick, just a little green. The next day, we were starving and it was getting to feel extremely cramp.

Slowly, we turned to the magikarp Team Rocket had used to get out the ship, hunger in our eyes. I couldn't help it, I was starving and I was ready to cook that thing using charmander. Meowth attacked it and ended up breaking his teeth.

"I wouldn't try that again if I were you. Magikarp is nothing but scales and bone." Misty said.

"That would have been nice to know." I muttered. I had gotten my hopes so high and now they were crushed. Its official, I was going to die out here with these people.

"Not only can this fish not swim, it's not good for eating!" James screamed.

"See? I told you buying it was stupid." Jessie glared.

"You good for nothing fish!" James snapped. "I don't want to be your master anymore!" he screamed and kicked the fish into the sea. Then the spot in the ocean where the fish had disappeared into started to glow. Uh, I knew what that meant.

"It's evolving into gyardos!" Derek exclaimed as gyardos resurfaced, glaring at them. He was mad. Everyone screamed and started to paddle as fast as we could trying to get it away. Pikachu thunder shocked it and Midnight sent a dark ball at the sea creature. The gyrados stopped and started to scream.

"It's dragon rage." David said.

"It's gryados' most feared attack." Misty gulped. The sea creature was joined by four more of its kind and we were lost in a cyclone of water. I lost sight of Jessie, James, and Meowth quick but the rest of us held hand.

"Whatever you do, don't let go!" Ash shouted. You want to know what happened? We all let go and was flung in separate directions. Everything went black.


	17. GIANT POKEMON

Giant Pokemon?

On a nearby island, the pokemon had been separated from the trainers. "Are we lost?" Bulbasaur asked.

"Well since we don't know where we are or we're out trainers are, I think we're lost." Midnight said rubbing her nose with her paw.

"We're on an island." Pikablue answered.

"Hey, there's someone." Midnight said, pointing to a pink pokemon sitting on a rock and staring ahead of it.

"Hello," Charmander said. "Could you tell us where we are?"

"He's not gonna answer." Pikablue said. Since they were being ignored, the pokemon started to walk until the sun went down.

"I wonder where the humans are?" Midnight asked after an hour of silence. Dust Oddish tried keeping up and Dust Weedle was resting on Midnight's back exhausted.

"They just disappeared." Charmander said.

"Maybe they all got eaten by wild pokemon." Squirtle grinned, making a scary face. Midnight growled at him, not appreciating the cheap joke. Squirtle was quick to hide being Charmander.

"I'll zap you if you say that!" Pikachu snapped.

"Maybe Ash forgot about us." Bulbasaur said. Midnight kicked him and he ended up sprawled on the ground.

"He would never do that! None of them would!" Pikachu snapped.

About five minutes of walking, "Alright pokemon! Surrender!" someone shouted and a familiar foe appeared.

"It's just meowth." Pikachu said bored.

"I guess the Team Rocket motto is starting to lose its impact." Meowth shrugged.

"It had an impact before?" Midnight asked. Koffing and ekans appeared behind the cat and he tried to make them fight the other pokemon but they wouldn't, wanting to only obey their masters.

"Alright meowth," Squirtle said.

"It's up to you." Bulbasaur.

"Are you going to fight against all of us?" Midnight and Pikachu demanded. But ekans and koffing didn't seem interested in fighting.

David's POV

I had been sitting on this rock for the better part of two hours, just thinking about Derek. I knew he was the one who had tried to kill me but for some reason I couldn't find it in myself to hold it against him. This didn't stop me from doodling on his face like jiggilypuff however. I had checked my pockets and found all six pokeballs still there. Lucario had washed up with us. Pikablue was nowhere to be found.

"What I want to know is how you fell into darkness in the first place." I muttered to myself. Derek has one of the brightest hearts I have ever encountered but he was still being used by the darkness. Stranger still was the fact that I felt I could trust him. I think my trusting sense is broken. This guy had tried to kill me after all. I finally decided to wake them all up.

[Five more minutes daddy.] Lucario mummbled and with that I got out my trusty air horn.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" Misty yelled at me but then everyone caught sight of Derek's face.

"What's so funny?" He demanded and then caught a look of himself in the water. He rubbed it off and I told him that jiggilypuff had come through and had squiggled on him before I could chase her off. I could tell he didn't believe me. Ash then discovered that all but two of his pokeballs were missing. So we went to look for the missing pokemon and for whatever reason Derek came with us.

"What's he doing?" Dust whispered

"Beats me. He could have easily gotten off the boat without a lifeboat." I answered but what's done is done. Eventually it got dark and we found ourselves chased by a giant zapdos.

"DO SOMETHING!" Derek shouted at me

"LIKE WHAT?" I called back

"I DON'T KNOW! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE THE HOT SHOT POKEMON MASTER AND KEYBLADE WARRIOR!" He yelled and then the robo zapdos finally flew over us.

"Well now that that is done with." I said as I brushed off my pants.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN? You could have gotten us all killed!" Derek wasn't handling this well

"What? Like I'm supposed to be perfect just because I'm not human? You've got some strange fantasies." I quipped

"You could have blasted that thing or cut it in half!" He retorted

"Like I'm going to do that." I told him

"You don't seem to have any problem doing it to heartless!" He shouted

"Yeah, but they just happen to be darkness given form. I'm not going to lose sleep over killing off a couple thousand." I yawned

"Oh yeah? Well let's just see how you like it when the heartless are doing the killing!" He yelled and then he summoned two dark followers.

"What are those things?" Dust screamed

"Dark followers, on a scale of one to ten on the pain-in-the-butt meter they score an eleven. Two of them? I think we may be in trouble." I was not liking the odds, particularly since my sync blade ability was still on the fritz.

"Well, what can you do?" Ash shotued

"Everyone, cross your fingers and start praying! I'm going to try something!" I called as the dark followers prepared to strike. I drew my Ultima weapon in my right hand and put my left hand over my right. I then focused really hard on the oblivion keyblade. I'm hoping they forgot to lock my fusion weilding when they knocked off my sync blade. I then felt the familiar warmth in my hands. IT'S WORKING! As soon as the fusion weilding was compleat I felt not only my sync blade come back online but also a new skill.

"That's incredible!" Dust called

"You ain't seen nothing yet!" I cried and then fused two more keyblades right in front of me.

"DUAL FUSION WEILDING? That's impossible!" Derek shouted as I killed off one of the dark followers in a rapid combo.

"Yeah, well, I threw out the rule book when you and your master locked off my sync blade ability!" I called as I finished off the second dark follower, "Now I'm gonna show you real hurt!" I then took off after him but he jumped through a dark corridor at the last second. I then proceeded to do a victory dance beause I HAD MY DUAL WEILDING BACK!

[It's times like these I'm embarassed to be your pokemon.] Lucario griped

"Too bad." I stuck my tongue out at him

"Well it's good that that jerk's gone." Dust remarked and eventually we found a cave to crash in for the night. When we woke up that morning we continued to look for the pokemon. Only then we found a giant charizard.

"WATCH OUT!" Misty shouted and we all dived behind a rock as the giant charizard let loose a flamethrower worth of its size.

[Well isn't this turning out to be such fun?] Lucario asked, his voice dripping with sarcasam. We then began to run and saw Team Rocket coming on a rail cart from a rock bridge which collapsed as they passed under it.

"THAT DOES IT! This isn't fun anymore!" Dust yelled but no one could hear her except me because everyone else was too busy screaming about the giant kabutops and pikachu.

"Guys, look over there!" Misty pointed and we saw the pokemon, running from a giant blastiose and charizard.

"SAVE ME PIKACHUPIK!" Pikablue screamed and it was then we discovered that this thing didn't have breaks.

"Give me a break." Ash quipped and I smacked him upside the head. Now wasn't the time for extremely stupid puns.

[LOOP IN THE TRACK? WHO'S STUPID IDEA WAS THAT?] Lucario yelled but I was looking forward to it. The looping was fun. It also gave the pokemon a chance to catch up and jump in.

"Thank goodness! That was bad enough the first time!" Pikablue cried and then somehow all the giant pokemon got caught on the wire and were now all following us.

"Maybe our luck will hold out!" Ash said hopefully but I didn't think so

"Well, based on our current run of luck I think the cable will snap." James remarked

"That should happen about...now." Jesse said and sure enough the cable snapped.

"Next, we'll be hurled into the air." James predicted and a few seconds later we were up in the air.

"Then we'll probably crash into something." Meowth added and we carshed into the robo zapdos.

"And then, finally..." Jesse started

"We hit the water." James finished

"After a very, very long drop!" Meowth shouted and we splashed down. Team Rocket is just plain weird sometimes. We finally dragged ourselves out of the water and with all the pokemon back in the pokeballs we continued on our way. I just hope we NEVER have to do that again.

David: The island of giant pokemon was bad enough the first time around.

Me: But don't forget, you have a giant tentacrule to look forward to now!

David: *Groan*


	18. That's one BIG Tentacruel

The world of pokemon Psychicshipping here to start off one of my least favorite episodes. Oh well, at least one of my favorites is right after this one. Also, even if you have just a few seconds, a review means the world to us. So please review!

More GIANT POKEMON

David's POV

Something was off in Dust's aura. It was fluctuating and I didn't know why. Of course, there was no use in disturbing her but it was still unsettling. But for some odd reason, I had a distinct feeling of de ja vu, and it isn't from walking to the same places all over again.

"I recognize this place! It's the place with the giant tentacruel!" Pikablue cried, neither of us really had fond memories of this place. I knew that in the next three hours we would get into a lot of trouble. Pikachu spotted the horsea and the water type was injured and then made an ink drawing.

"Those look like a tenacool and tentacrule." Dust remarked and right before Misty could catch the hurt pokemon a ship exploded. We sent out water pokemon to help the sailors. Misty sent out staryu, starmie, and golden. I sent out samurott, empoleon, wartotle, and swampet. Brock then hijacked a boat to help rescue the sailors.

"It hasn't even been half an hour yet and we're already in tons of trouble!" Pikachu cried and one of the sailors told us to go to his boss. Nastina was the same creepy old hag she was last time. Ash asked her for a ride to the main land and was refused. She said she wanted to see her hotel, which was being built on the ocean.

"But only if those tentacool stop interfering!" Nastina growled and then said the tentacool were despicable creatures.

"No pokemon is despicable!" Dust shouted and then Misty and Nastina got into a shouting match. Nastina then had the nerve to ask us to exterminate the tentacool. Lucario was maintaining a strong silence, but I suspect it was only to keep himself from treating Nastina to a taste of his aura sphere. I don't blame him and then she tried to bribe us.

"THAT'S DISGUSTING!" Misty roared and left. We went after her and then she said the tentacool were cute. I have never seen a cute tentacool and Ash agreed with me.

"I guess ugly is in the eye of the beholder." Brock commented and Misty said there had to be a good reason for the tentacool attacking people.

"Is it just me or does Misty seem infatuated with water pokemon?" Dust asked me in an undertone.

"You ain't just whistling Dixie." I answered and we went to find the horsea. We made a small pool for him and Pikachu and pikablue tool a chance to enjoy it as well. We gave the water type a super potion and after a few minutes horsea seemed fine again. The others then deduced that the horsea knew why the tentacool were attacking.

[Why is Nastina bribing everyone? Can't she get professional!] Lucario wondered but it didn't really matter, hordes of people had come to claim the million dollar reward. Nastina was also in a tank. What I don't get is why Nastina is allowed to have a tank but some old cowboy isn't allowed to point a gun at Ash. Then along came Team Rocket.

"Spunky? Them?" Pikachu questioned.

"That's a new definition of spunk." Ash quipped and I snorted as Nastina shot at Team Rocket. I knew what happened next, Team Rocket poisons the water but instead it makes one of the tentacool evolve into a giant tentacule, and then he tried to tear down the city. Attack of the giant tentacruel, take 2.

Dust POV:

I was in shock and amazement. There was no possible way that a tentracuel could be bigger than one of the buildings! How was that even possible! I watched horrified as the tentacruel started to

destroy the construction site. Nastina shouted a command and some men started to shoot bullets at the large pokemon but he didn't seem hurt, if anything he looked more annoyed.

All the smaller tentacool started for land while the much larger one created a tidal wave for them. All the others ran to safety in the building but I was frozen, terrified as the water came crashing towards me.

"Dust!" David shouted from the doorway. That was when I was pulled into a pair of arms, one on my shoulders and the other under my legs, as the person carrying me ran into the building and closed the doors just as the water raced by.

"You." David seethed. Wondering why he was so mean to my hero, I turned and saw my hero's face.

"Derek!" I cried surprised. Last I saw him, it was on the island of giant pokemon where he disappeared, leaving us at some point when I didn't notice. The brown haired boy looked down at me.

"Why do I always find myself holding you like this?" he asked and I turned red. I knew what he was talking about. From when we were trapped on the boat, he had caught me when I fell off Onix who we were using as a staircase. And now here we were again.

I huffed and jumped out his arms, kneeling down to pet Midnight on the head, plainly ignoring the older and taller boy. Decided it wasn't safe on the first floor, we all ran up the stairs to the fifth floor as the elevators weren't working, and watched the tidal pool washing over the city.

"I don't understand why they would do this, now everybody will be against them." Misty said sadly.

"We are tentacool and tentacruel." Someone said loudly from outside. Turning, I noticed Meowth being held by the largest tentacruel. Meowth seemed to be in some sort of trance, the tentacruel using him as a speaker. "Humans have destroyed our ocean home, now we will have our revenge." The smaller tentacruel's and tentacool's continued destroying the city.

"Their home must have been the reef the hotel was being built on." Brock realized. My eyes widened, no wonder these pokemon were so worked up. I would be too if my home was being destroyed. That was when the tentacruel and tentacool's started to destroy the building we were hiding it and it would be soon that they would succeed.

I noticed Horsea, trying to reason with the pokemon but nothing seemed to be working. Annoyed, one of the tentacruel's hit Horsea, sending him flying out of the water. Ash sent out Pidgeotto to catch him and Pidgeotto dropped Horsea in Misty's arms.

"We have to do something!" I cried, before the town was completely destroyed.

"We'll all have to work together." David and Derek said. They stopped long enough to glare at each other.

"Boys, grow up and get over your school boy rivalry!" I snapped annoyed.

"School boy rivalry? But he's the enemy!" They both protested at the same time but everyone still sent out their all their pokemon to battle the water pokemon. Derek ended up helping by sending out a beautiful Jolteon and I was amazed at its power.

I stopped when I noticed my weedle was pushing one of the smaller tentacool's but seemed to be struggling. "You can do it, weedle!" I cheered as we forced all the small tentacool's and tentacruel's into the sea. Now, there was only the giant one that loomed over us all. Pikachu and Midnight were trying to talk to him but it wasn't working, he just refused to listen.

"Stop tentacruel!" A familiar voice shouted. Everyone turned to the voice and noticed Misty stood on top of the roof of the large buildings. "Please go back to the ocean!" She begged. "Please listen, this is enough. We understand that we hurt you! We won't destroy your homes anymore! We're sorry!" Misty pleaded with the giant tentacruel.

The giant water pokemon used Meowth to say, "If this happens again, we will not stop." The tentacruel threw Meowth to the side and left back to his home in the sea. We thought it was over, but then Nastina was stupid and started to shoot at the tentacruel, until the giant tentacruel just smacked

Nastina and she was sent flying. Whew, remind me to never make him mad…if we would ever see that big guy again.

"Um…Dust?" Ash said.

"Yes, Ash?" I asked, turning to face him.

"I think…Weedle is…" Ash stopped. Huh? David grabbed me by my shoulders and spun me around where my small baby weedle was glowing white. I squealed as the light faded to reveal Weedle's next evolution, Kukuna. I hugged my pokemon tightly. After having him for so long, he finally evolved, I was so proud.

A few hours later, Derek had disappeared again and we were on a boat to the main land, a boat that would take us to our next great adventure. "It's kind of strange but tentacruel turned out to be a nice guy." Brock commented.

"Who knew?" I shrugged, holding a death grip on the rail of the ship, feeling sickish. Midnight

"So Misty, still think all pokemon are cute?" Ash smirked, thinking she would say no.

"Sure do," Misty declared.

"…Well alright then," I said to the silence. Then I could feel myself turning green before I slumped over the ship's rail, breathing deeply and trying not to be sick.

"Anyway, Horsea is the cutest pokemon around. Come on out!" Misty cheered, releasing Horsea from a pokeball and striking 'Ash's pose'.

"Hey, that's my pose!" Ash protested.

"I know, I just wanted to try it out." Misty giggled.

"That's a good idea, I think I'll try it next." Brock grinned, loving it as Ash got riled up.

"Me next." I groaned. David shook his head sighing at my predicament.

"Hey, why don't you just come up with your own poses!" Ash cried.

"You should be flattered that other people want to try out your pose." Brock commented.


	19. The Ghost of Maiden's Peak

Dust's POV:

When we landed on the dock's after the ship stopped, I practically kissed the ground. I was so very excited as we finally entered Maiden's Peak. Actually, we all were excited about what we would see and do…all except Brock that is.

"What's up with you?" I questioned, noticing Brock's depressed mood as we walked on.

"Unlike you, Dust, it wouldn't matter if I never saw land again. I've just wasted another summer!" He muttered.

"Wasted?" I asked. How was this summer wasted? I've had more fun than I've ever had back home…although I wouldn't admit this to anyone, I was a little homesick. I've never been on my own before, if you could be alone when you have so many great friends, human and pokemon, with you.

"But we had a whole summer of adventures." Ash said, looking as confused as I felt.

"For kids, summer means playing on the beach and splashing around. But for me, summer means bathing suits and girls to wear them. Now I'll have to wait another year to meet a girl!" Brock whined.

My face started to tick, "Oh, get over it!" I cried. "Girls don't just disappear when summer does!" I declared.

"She does make a good point." David pointed out. That was when we walked into a festival without even noticing for the first five minutes, too caught up in our conversation.

"Hey, it's a festival!" I cried as I finally noticed.

"It looks like fun," Misty smiled.

"Hey, how about some carnival games," David smiled.

"I'll ride on the ferries wheel all alone," Brock said depressed.

"How about all the rides you can get on." I grinned. I loved roller coasters.

"Who's that…?" Brock trailed off. I looked confused but looked in the direction he was, towards the cliffs, but there was nothing there. Uh oh, Brock was being delusional.

"Uh… come on Brock, let's go play some games." I grabbed his upper arm and dragged him off. We were followed by the others. But that was when an old gray haired woman showed up, gave us a strange warning, and then insulted Misty. I had to use all my strength to hold Misty back under her arms so she wouldn't attack the woman. She was flaring around but Midnight helped by pushing her back.

Walking through the festival to see what was happening about; we finally stopped to watch some kind of painting being revealed. I was eating ice cream that I made everyone stop for. It took ten minutes, for such a short line of two other people, but it was worth it. When the man pulled back the painting, it was of a beautiful young girl. I knew that girl. Her statue stood on the cliffs.

The story goes about a thousand years ago when this young girl is how she fell in love with a young soldier but he had to leave her to fight in the war. She waited on the cliffs for months, waiting for his return and in the end, she died there. He never did return to those cliffs.

Brock was staring at the picture with a weird expression on his face. I was starting to get really worried about him.

About a few hours later, the group was standing around on the cliffs as Brock stared at the statue. "I want to go back to the festival, this is boring." Misty whined.

"We're wasting time just staring at the rock." I said, crossing my arms and leaning against the railing.

"You all can go back, I want to stay here a little bit longer." Brock said, not looking away. Seriously, what was going on in that head of his?

"You remember where we're staying, right?" Ash asked.

"The pokemon center by the port," Brock said. "I'll be back before curfew." Although I was feeling weird about it, I left the sullen boy.

David's POV

Well, curfew had just come and gone. Of course Brock wasn't back yet and when Ash tried to go look for him Nurse Joy stopped him. So, in the knowledge that Brock was safe with the ghost I was about to get ready for bed. But then I noticed Dust's aura flare up. She was dreaming but this was no normal dream. I checked and then it hit me. Dust was having a Dive dream!

[Is that what I think it is?] Lucario asked and I nodded in conformation. Now I couldn't get to sleep because I had to make sure nothing bad happens to Dust. But to think she's going to be a keyblade wielder. I just hope the keyblade knows what it's doing. Then the birthmark on the inside of her hand began to glow too. It was shaped kind of like a star but not quite. This should be interesting.

Dust's POV

I was falling through the clouds. On those clouds I could see my recent memories. First meeting David and midnight. Then Ash and the others. I had done a lot in just these past few months. I felt a deep peace with the world. Then I crashed down into an ocean and I started to flail about but I kept going down and then I noticed I could breathe! Then suddenly I landed on a solid surface. I looked around but I could see nothing but darkness. I took a hesitant step forward and then it seemed like birds were flying off the surface of a glowing platform. On the platform was a picture of midnight! Around her were my other pokemon and various other pokemon I had met. The platform glowed green.

_So much to do, so little time...Take your time. Don't be afraid. The door is still shut. Now, step forward. Can you do it?_

The voice came from everywhere and nowhere and seemed to fill up my mind but I could hear it with my ears. It also sounded familiar but I couldn't place where. I did as asked and stepped forward into the light. Then three pedestals appeared and then three different things. A sword, a shield, and something that looked like a wand or something.

_Power sleeps within you. If you give it form...it will give you strength. _

I guess that means I have to choose something. I went the shield first.

_The power of the guardian. Kindness to aid friends. A shield to repel all. Is this the power you seek?_

I put the shield back, I wanted to check out the other two first before I made a choice.

_The power of the warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction. Is this the power you seek?_

A sword of terrible destruction? This may be just a dream but I don't want to destroy anything. I went on to the wand thing.

_The power of the mystic. Inner strength. A staff of wonder and ruin. Is this the power you seek?_

That sounded pretty cool. So now I had to choose between the staff and the shield. After some thought I decided to choose the shield because I felt that aiding friends is important.

_Now, what will you give up in return?_

That was a no brainer; I went and gave up the sword. Then the pedestals collapsed into the ground and the platform began to shatter! I was falling, falling, falling. All I could see was darkness again and I feared I might get swallowed up by it. But then I saw another platform, this one blue and it had a picture of Misty and some water pokemon on it. Suddenly the shield appeared in my hand.

_You have gained the power to fight_.

I felt the grip of the shield and to my surprise it felt good in my hand. I swung it around a bit but I had to wonder; how was I going to fight with a shield? Then I felt a nudge in my mind and instinctively I swung the shield in a forward arc.

_That's it! You've got it! Use this power to protect yourself and others._

Then in the corner of my eye a gauge suddenly appeared. It had a green bar and two blue sections.

_The green gauge is your health or HP. If you run out of HP you will be wide open to serious injury or even death. Always keep an eye on it._

After a warning like that, I most certainly will keep an eye on it.

_The blue gauge is magic, this is still a mystery to you but you will learn how to use it in due time._

I always wanted to be a mage. Insert sarcasm here. Then those mutant bunnies, shadows David had called them, showed up.

_There will be times when you have to fight. Keep your strength up._

Then the shadows began to attack. Guided by that nudge I began to enter a pattern. Overhead swing, ram with the front of shield, then horizontal finish. This would be a lot easier with the sword or even that staff. THE EVIL LITTLE MONSTERS WOULDN'T STAY UP! I had to keep chasing after them and they jabbing me from behind! Finally I killed one of them and it dropped green orbs and the others fled.

_You gain experience or EXP by defeating enemies. With enough EXP you will gain a level. Furthermore, defeated enemies sometimes leave items behind. These items will automatically be attracted to you and placed in storage. Different items do different things, like restore HP or magic. Also, little green orbs restore HP while bubbles restore magic. _

That sounded pretty simple. I wonder what's going to happen next.

_Look out! Behind you!_

I spun around and found one of those sneaky shadows trying and sneak up on me. Then it was joined my more shadows. This time when I beat one I noticed a little 1p over the spot where I had killed it. I guess that's exp. I killed most of them without getting hurt too much and when I did get hurt I just went near some of the green orbs and got healed. Then the last shadow went into the ground and then blotches of darkness appeared all over the place. I fell in and it was like trying to move through wet cement or something. But it wasn't uncomfortable. It actually felt nice. I didn't fight it as it pulled me under and the next thing I knew I was on another platform. This one was a red/pink and had a picture of several hearts. I then noticed a door and went over to it. The door was transparent and then I heard something. I turned around and saw a small treasure chest appear.

_Try and open it by tapping on it with your shield._

I did as told and sure enough the chest popped open, but there wasn't anything in it. I was then told to go push a crate that had just appeared. I managed to do it without much difficulty.

_You can also smash them._

I wasn't about to ask questions and broke the box with my shield. Then out popped a very small blue chest and it automatically jumped into my pocket. Suddenly part of the door became more real. Next I was told to pick up a barrel and throw it. I did so and the rest of the door became real. I went over and opened it. There was a lot of light but I walked through the door. When I could see again I saw I was in my old room! On the bed sat Ash and leaning against the wall was David and in front of the door was Jenny.

_Hold on, the door won't open just yet. First, tell me a little more about yourself. _

I went over to Jenny first. She asked me what was most important to me. I felt like I could choose one of three answers: Friends, being number one, or my prize possessions. This was a no brainer, friends.

"Are friends so important?" That was a little weird and I moved on to David. He asked what I was afraid of. I got three choices again. Getting old, being indecisive, or being different. I wasn't really that worried about getting old and being different didn't bother me either. But I really didn't like being indecisive.

"Being indecisive? Is that really so scary?" Again, creepy and finally I came to Ash. He asked what I wanted out of life. To be strong, broaden my horizons, or see rare sights. They were all good choices but I chose seeing rare sights because I was OK the way I was but seeing rare sights is cool!

"To see rare sights hun?" The way he said it didn't comfort me any

_You want to have friends. You're afraid of being indecisive. You want to see rare sights. Your adventure begins at midday. Keep a steady pace and you'll come through fine._

That sounded OK to me.

_The day you will find yourself is both far off and very near. _

Next thing I knew I was on a yellow platform with the two pikachu on it. I was then instructed on how to use the data scape menu thing. Then suddenly a bunch of shadows showed up! The swarmed me, but I was able to block most of their attacks with my shield and then I began to attack. Every once in a while I would deflect an attack in the middle of a swing and I would have to start the attack all over again, but it was better than getting those nasty little claws cutting into me. I got hit about a dozen more times before I finally finished off the last of them. Then a green disk appeared on the ground.

_This is a safe disk. It will restore your HP and magic and also keep you on your feet if you are unable to find the time to sleep. _

That sounded useful. Then mini platforms suddenly appeared. An image sprung to my mind about the stairs to the pearly gates. I swept it away but it still got me nervous. The next platform had an image of David with his arms crossed and a look of deep concentration on his face. I then proceeded to walk closer to the light.

_The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes._

I felt a chill run up my spine. I turned around to see my shadow growing behind me. And growing, and growing some more until it WAS A FREAKING GIANT HEARTLESS! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!

_And don't forget..._

I was too busy running to listen but then I remembered I was on a platform that was like a thousand feet up and there was no escape! I waited for the voice to continue but he didn't so I summoned my shield and began to battle. Thanks to these little markers I saw I knew his weak points. He then charged up his fist and hit me! It hurt a lot. Then came a swirling mass of darkness on the ground but his fist wasn't moving and that was one of the weak spots so I began attacking it. But then I saw that the swirling darkness was spawning shadows. Well isn't that just peachy. I began to attack them and managed to beat them before the thing started its next attack.

_Get in front of it and deflect the energy balls at it!_

The thing had kneeled and was charring up something in its chest. I got in front and when he shot at me I swung at the last second and sent the shot right back into its head. Then the next round hit me. The last round was three at the same time and I sent them all back. He charged up his fist again and brought it crashing down. More shadows, oh joy. Suddenly I started glowing for a second and in the top left corner of my eye I saw something that said 'Level up!' 'Strength increase!'. After a few more rounds of sending back energy balls and killing off shadows the thing broke down and I got a tone of exp, enough for another 'level up!' 'Defense increase!'. I felt time become distorted and slow down. Then everything snapped back to rights and I was about to finish this guy off when my shield vanished! I AM TOAST! I started sinking into another pool of darkness, but this one didn't feel so friendly.

_But don't be afraid. You hold the mightiest weapon of all. So don't forget: You are the key that will open the doors_.

Now I knew who it was! It was David's voice!

David's POV

"She's safe, thank goodness." I heaved a sigh of relief. She would probably sleep until dawn. I then remembered her complaining about being a helpless normal girl back on the St. Anne. Well she won't have to worry about that anymore.

Dust's POV:

The next morning, I had woken up from that strange dream. Brock wasn't back so when the door's reopened, the entire gang took off running towards the cliff's, hoping we would find him safe but if he was, let's just say, he will not enjoy being on my bad side.

He wasn't anywhere we could find, so we started shouting his name. "Brock!" I shouted, my voice mixing in with the others.

"James!" Another voice called back. We were confused for only minutes, before realizing that Team Rocket had lost a member as well. Jessie and Meowth were out here looking for James. They decided to do the team rocket 'motto' but it obviously wasn't working for them without James.

Halfway through though, another voice hidden somewhere had joined in. I knew that voice. And who else would know that motto so well? At the same time, we all turned to the little hut like house that overlooked the cliffs. The door swung open and James fell out. He was quickly joined by Brock. But something wasn't right with them.

"Brock, what happened?" Ash questioned when we got Brock to sit up.

"He won't be able to answer." David sighed. I flicked the side of Brock's head, but he just tumbled over to the side, the same loopy expression on his face. Midnight poked him with her nose whimpering but no reaction.

I jumped when I sensed a new presence coming up behind me, only to realize it was the old woman from earlier. "Obviously, these two have seen the ghost of the maiden." She said and Pikachu electrocuted Brock and James so they would snap out of it. I think that worked pretty well. Anyway, the woman explained how all men who see the ghost fall under her spell. Brock still wasn't all there, but James was terrified. Of course, then the woman offered up some anti-ghost stickers…that we needed a lot of money to pay for. Luckily, together, us, not team rocket, we managed to get enough money to pay for said stickers.

Inside, we covered the house and Brock and James from head to toes with those stickers. We hid, watching the two boys. We hid and we waited for what would to happen. Hours went by and the moon was going high into the sky when _it_ happened.

A strong wind came, blowing the stickers all over the place. The door swung open and the figure of a woman appeared, a woman dressed in white, so pale and translucent that you could see straight through her.

James and Brock were lifted into the air by an invisible force and brought outside. I grabbed onto one of his legs with David and Midnight, trying to pull him back while Ash and Misty grabbed his other leg but we weren't doing much help. James was almost to the ghost when Jesse ran out.

"Hey ghost, you can't take him! You haven't a ghost of a chance!" Jessie shouted.

"You really do care!" James cried.

"It's not cause of you," Jessie declared. "Girls like her disgust me, always waiting for her man as if she were a faithful pet. She can't stand the thought of losing him, but I say, 'see you later!' there are plenty more fish in the see."

"I am waiting, you will not interfere." The ghost said. There was a strong wind, more figures appeared.

"How are we getting out of this one!" I cried, my hair blowing around my face, hoping I wouldn't be blown off my feet.

"Don't worry; it's not a real ghost!" David shouted over the wind. "It's a ghost pokemon, ghastly!" The figure of the woman finished and a small floating purple pokemon appeared.

"So, you figured it out." The gastly smirked. Midnight used shadow ball and attacked but gastly dodged and sent his counterattack. It took only a second to realize it was an illusion.

That was when the sun came out and the gastly freaked, flying off. Well, I guess he was like a vampire. So with that now out of the way and the mystery of the ghost of maiden's peek were solved, we decided to join in on the ending of the festival, dressed in kimonos.

I smiled at Ash and Misty dancing, Brock was nowhere to be found but I knew he was probably fine this time. The drums started. I laughed and started dancing along.


	20. We'll Miss You, Butterfree

Hello there and welcome to one of the saddest episodes in all of pokemon history. Yes, that's right, welcome to butterfree's goodbye. Note, this chapter contains spoilers. This is psychicshipping kicking off the farewell of butterfree.

David's POV

[So, what's on your mind?] Lucario asked, trying to pick my brain.

[I'm just trying to figure out the best way to tell Dust she's gonna be a keyblade weilder.] I answered and no matter how much thought I put into this I couldn't seem to get a satisfactory solution.

"You could always let her find out for herself when the keyblade suddenly appears in her hand for the first time." Pikablue suggested but that didn't sound like a good plan to me, but if I didn't get a move on then that's probably what will happen anyway. Anyway, unless my memory was failing me, we were about to bid farewell to butterfree. Of course, back during my first journey I had found butterfree wandering about in Sinnoh and returned him to Ash for a birthday surprise. Found memories to be sure, but right now Ash was gawking at some rocks down by the cliff face.

"That's a long drop." Ash remarked.

"Fall from here and the ball game is over." Misty agreed and midnight added her own whimper. Brock looked at the map and said that the ridge along the cliff would take us right to Saffron city and the next gym. If nothing else then this encounter would be very different from the last time. Last time I had been there my psychic powers had been all bottled up but now I had more power than Mewtwo.

"I just hope none of us gets turned into dolls again." Pikablue commented.

"I don't think you need to worry about that pikablue. But such an event might trigger Dust's new keyblade to appear." I informed him and then we all saw the tons of butterfree. It was their mating season. Most butterfree that come from here end up in the orange islands but a few got to either Sinnoh or Johto. Brock then told Ash that if he didn't let butterfree go he wouldn't have babies.

"I'm surprised we managed to rent a hot air balloon." Dust remarked as we went up to mingle with the butterfree and then we caught sight of tons of other balloons. Ash then let his butterfree out. After a while butterfree returned without much success. Then Brock yelled at him about the importance of this thing and with new confidence butterfree returned to the hunt. Then butterfree became quite taken with a pink butterfree.

[Ugh.] Lucario grumbled.

[Just be glad Mew isn't here, or Hope for that matter. Those two would be positively sickening.] I reminded him and lucario decided to count his blessings. Butterfree began a mating dance but in the end he got slapped. That was hardly fair! What did he do to deserve that slap? Butterfree was crushed and flew off. So now we had to go and find him. We found him and Pikachu tried to console him but butterfree was just too blue.

"I just don't understand it. My butterfree is great, why would any other butterfree reject him?" Ash wondered and everyone gave butterfree love advice and Brock even gave him a scarf. As soon as we got back in the air Ash began to search for the pink one.

DUST'S POV

After finding the pink butterfree, our butterfree once again tried to get her attention by doing powerful attacks, trying to prove off its strength. But sadly, the pink butterfree was still not impressed and looked like she was ready to fly off at any given second. That was when Team Rocket in a chopper came literally out of nowhere, did the motto, and captured all but Ash's butterfree in a large butterfly net.

We watched helplessly, unable to do anything as the butterfree's were taken over. I noticed that Ash's butterfree was still free and was trying to free the other butterfrees. Team Rocket flew away, Butterfree flying after him.

"Come on, guys!" I cried. We followed as fast as we could in a hot air balloon. We finally arrived at an air hanger. We looked at each other and smirked. Why not, make an entrance?

One by one, we arrived in the air hanger where team rocket and the butterfree stood. I appeared out of nowhere, a white light shined down on me. I had my arms crossed and head bowed so my hair covered my eyes. "Prepare for trouble." I said, startling them as everyone spun around.

"And multiple it by five," Misty added. The white light shown on her as well. She stood back to back with me, her arms also crossed and head bowed so her red hair covered her eyes.

"To protect the world from devastation," Brock said, appearing in front of us with a flashlight shining in his eyes.

"To unite all peoples within our nation." Ash said, appearing next to Misty. His back was turned to the rest of us, arms crossed and head bowed, his hat hiding his eyes from view.

"To denounce the evils of wrongdoings." David said, showing up next to me in a similar pose.

"Surrender now or prepare to lose the fight," all five of us said together.

"Pikachu!"

"Umbrean!" the two pokemon cried

[Lucario, that's right!] Lucario finished up

"This is too much," Jessie said and butterfree attacked. Starmie and Midnight did as well and butterfree managed to free the other butterfly like pokemon. Brock pulled the door open and all but the pink butterfree escaped. James tried to threaten the pink butterfree, but Ash's butterfree tackled James. I had to laugh at that. Team Rocket managed to get into their chopper and fly off while we tried to follow in the hot air balloon.

"_Get back you cowards!" _I snarled. Attacking a bunch of butterfree's trying to mate, what kind of people were they? Team Rocket was trying to capture the butterfree again but Pikachu caught a ride on our butterfree and flew after them. Pikachu did a thunder shock to blow up the chopper.

As the battle was now won, the pink butterfree flew over to Ash's. I could see she was blushing before she started to do the courtship dance. Ash's butterfree was so happy that he joined in.

A few hours later, it was time to say goodbye. "They have to cross the ocean to start there new family." Brock said.

"Don't forget us." I said softly. It hurt to see him go.

"Good luck with your new life, Butterfree." David said behind me. We all waved sadly as the butterfree's left for a new future.


	21. Saffron City

The Psychic Gym:

Dust's POV:

We were walking to found the fourth gym but it was quite obvious that we were getting more lost and I was getting annoyed. What I would do for an actually bed. But then, as clear as the moon in the night sky, we heard the giggle of a little girl. In front of us, was a little girl, maybe six or seven, wearing a white dress and a sun hat.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Do you know the way out of this forest?" Ash asked. The little girl giggled and ran off but Ash ran after her and we quickly followed him. Ash was about to fall off the cliff that suddenly appeared in the fog but Midnight grabbed the back of his jacket as he teetered on the edge and pulled him back on.

"What about that weird little girl?" Misty asked as Ash joined up.

"I don't know, but look." Ash pointed in the distance below where Saffron city stood.

"Wow, she really did help us after all." I commented.

"It's beautiful!" Misty grinned.

"Sabrina is the gym leader of Saffron City." Brock explained.

"Really? I wonder what she's like." I said.

"You'll find out." David said.

"Look out, Sabrina, here I come!" Ash cheered and we finally walked our way into the city of Saffron. When we entered the gates, we were ambushed by two females who each kissed Ash's cheeks. I recognized them, Team Rocket. James was a girl…again. Didn't he know how to dress like a guy for once when he tried to disguise himself. But that was when we were knocked out.

When we woke up, it was in a windowless and door less room. But there was a large TV screen on the wall…and Pikachu was missing. The TV flickered on to reveal Team Rocket.

"What now?" I grumbled.

"Good evening, you're watching the premier prepare for trouble and make it double show." They grinned. Ash was grossed out when he realized it was Team Rocket that had kissed him. I yawned and Team Rocket finally finished their regular intro. Then the screen went blank.

Ash shouted at the screen but then the little girl from earlier suddenly appeared. She held the missing Pikachu.

The little girl suddenly teleported out of the room, before I could say anything, we too were teleported out and when I was able to see again, I noticed we were in front of a large building. An old man nearby told us it was the gym and of course, Ash ran in.

"Anyone here?" Ash called out as we followed him in. Looks like I'll have to find the gym for my battle later on.

"This place is weird." Misty said. We finally stopped at a door where everyone inside were psychics. I saw a man make his metal spoon bend with his mind.

"What are you kids doing here?" we heard someone say behind us. We all turned and saw it was a man.

"We've come to ask for a pokemon match," Ash declared.

"You want to challenge the great Sabrina?" the man asked.

"Well we didn't come here for nothing," I commented.

"Excuse me," Misty interrupted. "But what are all those people doing in that room."

"They're psychics, practicing their abilities." The man explained. "You know so little, and yet you wish to challenge the great Sabrina." The man took a metal spoon out his lab coat pocket and made it bend without actually using his hands.

"Is something wrong?" Ash asked. "You look like you've got a headache."

"You fool," The man said. "It's telekinesis."

"Isn't that moving stuff with your mind?" I asked.

"Yes, little girl, it is." The man said. I huffed at being called a 'little girl'. I knew I was small but I wasn't a little girl anymore.

David's POV

I knew I shouldn't, but I couldn't resist.

"You call that pathetic display telekinsis?" I mocked and then I pulled all the spoons in the building towards me and when they were all lined up I bent them all with ease. The man was speachless. I am such a kick butt psychic.

"Telekinesis is OK. But I have my own secret method for bending spoons." Ash said and then grabbed one of the spoons and bent it with his hands. "Muscle over mind!" Ash crowed

"Just pretend we don't know him." Brock whispered but Dust was too busy laughing. No matter how many times you see it, Ash's 'secret method' is always freaking funny! So the man took us to the gym area. Then we saw the currently emotionless Sabrina torture the man. I saved her from herself before and if I have to I'll do it again! I just can't stand seeing anyone like this, let alone Sabrina. Ash challenged her and the doors closed behind us.

"Not so fast Ash, I'll go first." I said and when Sabrina was ready with her abra I sent out my sableye.

"She's really freaky." Dust whispered for fear of getting on Sabrina's bad side. I was ready and willing to take down her abra.

"Sableye use shadow ball!" I ordered but abra teleported. Sabrina then tried to evolve abra. Like I was gonna let that happen.

"That's not fair!" The little doll protested. "No one is a better psychic than me!"

"Why be taught by the rest when you can be taught by the best? I just happen to be one of the most powerful psychics ever! So you excuse me if I put a stop to your attempts to evolve abra with apparent ease." I quipped. "Now sableye use shadow sneak!" I ordered and sableye appeared to melt into the shadows only to reappear in abra's shadow and land a hard blow.

"Go David!" The others cheered

[I wouldn't count Sabrina out just yet. She's attacking David with her psychic powers while the pokemon are battling.] Lucario pointed out to the others. But he was being a bit of a worry wart. There was nothing Sabrina could throw at me that I couldn't counter. She did teach me back in the Unova reagion. I know most, if not all, of her tricks and that's after she had recovered her heart.

"Sableye use shadow claw!" I called and even though abra tried to teleport, sableye was ready and landed several blows, resulting in a KO.

"Now it's my turn!" Ash declared and Sabrina psychically restored abra. Pikachu then got into the ring and started trash talking, but abra remained silent, this was because he was asleep. Pikachu then attacked with thundershock but abra teleported at his trainer's telepathic command. Now that I wasn't battling I couldn't stop Sabrina from evolving abra. She now had a kadabra.

"This isn't going to end well." Pikablue commented and then Ash told pikachu to fill the place with electricity. But kadrabra used telekinesis to stop the electricity and then send it back to pikachu. Pikachu got his butt kicked. Ash threw in the towel.

"Be my friends, you promised I could play with you." The doll said and then all the others were teleported out. I was faced with a choice. Either pull a repeat and stay or go with them and have some fun at lavender tower. Just then I sensed that for whatever reason, being attacked by Sabrina's psychic energy had brought Dust's keyblade into her hands. Now the choice was clear. I teleported to where the others were. We arrived at about the same time.

"Ow, what did I land on?" Dust groaned and she got up and saw that she was sitting on a keyblade I had never seen before. The actual blade was thin, like a rapier and about the same steel gray. It was about 5 1/2 feet long with gold wrapping around like a maypole. A white angle wing was in place of teeth and two more angle wings acted as the handguard. The grip was pure white and finally the keychain was a keyhole with a gold outline. All in all it was one of the more unique keyblades I had ever come across. "Why am I sitting on your keyblade?" Dust asked me

[I don't think that keyblade is his.] Lucario remarked

"He's right, I've never seen that kind of keyblade to start with and I know for a fact that that keyblade is in fact your keyblade." I told her and then she proceeded to make an excellent imitation of a fish with her mouth opening and closing.

"What a stunning turn of events." Pikablue quipped

[Not really, Dust had her Dive Dream a few nights ago.] Lucario informed pikablue

"WHAT?" Dust had finally finished her fish imitation

"Well at least now you can't complain about being helpless." I commented dryly and Dust shot me a look that told me she didn't appreciate my droll humor. I then noticed the mark on the palm of Dust's hand was emitting a strange energy. Maybe it was connected to her keyblade?

"What am I supposed to do with this? I can't fight! I can bearly throw a punch!" Dust exclaimed

"Just a little training and you'll be fine. The keyblade'll take care of the rest." I assured her but something was off and I wanted to know what.

"And I suppose you'll be the one training me?" Dust asked in a none too thrilled tone

"I don't see any other keyblade warriors around." I replied

"Well isn't that special." Dust grumbled

[If you think that's good just wait, in less than two weeks we'll see Mewtwo!] I reminded her and she nearly jumped out of her skin but she managed to keep her mouth shut. I could tell that Dust needed some time to think and so we just went to find Ash and the others. Eventually we discovered them.

"THIS STUPID CAKE IS FAKE!" Brock cried after he had tried to eat a hard plastic slice of cake. Finally the others discovered that we were in the middle of a doll world.

"CAN THIS DAY GET ANY MORE OUT OF CONTROL?" Dust cried and I knew she wouldn't like the answer. Just then Sabrina showed up and removed the roof of the dollhouse.

"RUN FOR IT!" Ash shouted and we all bolted. I wasn't really in the mood to knock Sabrina down a peg or two. Besides, if the Sabrina that I know and care about ever finds out that I had knocked her down a peg or two, even if she is from another dimension, I'm the one who might end up short a few pegs. Then that psycho doll started laughing.

"Shoot, I forgot how freaking creepy that thing is." Pikablue quipped as we continued to run.

"Somehow, my first moments as a keyblade weilder aren't what I was expecting!" Dust shouted

"I'm not the one you should be pissed off at! Take it out with Sabrina!" I called back and knew that Dust wasn't planning on doing anything that stupid. Finally we came up to a dead end, a picture of Sabrina when she was younger with her parents. Then that freaky doll walked up, bouncing a ball.

"Can't you just slice and dice that ball?" Dust asked nervously, I was about to point out that slicing and dicing things is a lot easier when the target is a regular polygon when Sabrina's dad teleported in and got everyone else out. Then I promptly used a gravity spell and stopped the ball, I then sliced and diced the still sphere.

"You're a meanie!" The doll whined and then I teleported out. I got there just as Sabrina's dad was pulling down Ash's pants and proceeded to make him dance.

"As much as I find this hilarious, I'm gonna have to ask you to leave my friend alone." I said and then proceeded to block the old man's telekinesis. Ash then begged Sabrina's dad to teach him to use psychic powers. I snorted and by way of saying 'no' Sabrina's dad sent Ash packing with a telekinetic shove. Ash then proceeded to prove he had the willpower to overcome the psychic attacks of Sabrina's dad. Big whoop, I'd be impressed if he did that to me or even Sabrina.

[Doesn't matter what dimension you find yourself in, if Ash is there then he's hellbent on getting all the badges. Never mind a freaking psycho girl who's removed her emotions.] Lucario remarked, but only so pikablue and myself could hear him. I smacked him upside the head.

[I'd be more careful who you go around calling psycho, in case you've forgotten what happened the last time you got on Sabrina's nerves.] I countered and that sobered lucario right up. Sabrina's dad then told Ash about the ghost pokemon. So we were on to lavender town.

So with that we waltz right on to lavander town, with Ash blissfully unaware that he and pikachu will soon spend a few hours as ghosts. But will others be there to join them this time around? Just wait to find out!


	22. Haunter

Hello boys and girls! Welcome to another exciting chapter of this story, kicked off by yours truly, psychicshipping. Now, just out of curiosity, how many of you currently reading this story are also in the middle of reading my first one? Other than that it's on with the chapter.

David's POV

Well, Dust still wasn't all that thrilled about being a keyblade weilder. Probably because she's seen how much I get hurt. But there wasn't much anyone could do about it now. Anyway, we were on our way to lavender town for some ghost pokemon. This time my last adventure I was KO'd back at Sabrina's gym. Well, at least there were plenty of shadows and other various weak heartless that I could beat up and try and show Dust the ropes.

"I just hope that more powerful heartless don't show up. Just imagine what a disaster it would be if an army of hot rods showed up." Pikablue remarked and then shivered. I agreed, hot rods are one of the worst heartless.

[Don't jinx us stupid!] Lucario exclaimed and knocked pikablue on the head with a bone rush. Suddenly a chill went up my spine, like someone had been walking on my grave. I felt in my heart that the winds of destiny had begun to blow my way, weather I liked it or not. There was also the matter of the name of the strange keyblade Dust had gotten. Suddenly a thick fog rolled in.

"Let's all hold hands so we don't get separated." Brock suggested and of course it was Brock who ended up almost lost in the fog. He then gripped pikachu's tail and caused Pikachu to let loose a thundershock. Brock got fried and Misty got real close to Ash. Ash then proceeded to scare the crap out of everyone but me with a duskull mask.

"If we're going up against ghost pokemon, we've got to learn to deal with fear." Ash explained but the others weren't too happy. Pikachu was so mad that he zapped Ash really good and Dust was so furious that she suddenly cast a fire spell and hit Ash.

"I've never known someone to learn a spell just by getting angry. That's some temper you've got there!" I exclaimed but Dust just growled at me. Eventually we made it to Lavender town. As soon as we got to lavender tower Misty and Brock abandoned us.

"I already have a dark type; I don't see why I have to come." Dust tried to weasel her way out of coming.

"So? There are bound to be heartless in there that we can fight. Besides, getting scared senseless every once in awhile is good for you!" I told her and then Ash's courage started to fail. Just then we heard Team Rocket's screaming, but I saw no reason to tell them it was Team Rocket. We then all entered the tower.

[This is the oh so spooky lavender tower? I've seen scarier things in your closet.] Lucario remarked to me

"What in my closet is so scary?" I asked

[The stuff your sister put in there, the My Little Pony crap.] Lucario replied in a scared whisper, as if the mere mention of said items would bring them hither. Just then charmander lit up the tower. Then Brock found a candle and charmander proceeded to light both the candle and Brock. We then heard the ghosts laughing. We then went searching and found the dining room. Ash then pulled a string and it set off firecrackers.

"Are we being welcomed?" Misty wondered and then all the stuff started flying around. Everyone got ambushed but I dodged and then activated my dual wield ability and started slice and dicing everything. When everyone was safe I retreated.

DUST POV:

Brock, Misty, Ash, David, Midnight, Pikachu, Pikablue, and I were breathing hard outside the haunted building we'd just escaped. That was terrifying but…I wanted to go back in. And apparently, Ash did to. However, his pokemon refused. It wasn't long before we managed to change their minds but Misty and Brock were a completely different story.

"No way, we're just going to stay right here and wait for you," Misty said. Her, Brock, and David decided to stay outside. Misty and Brock were too scared to go while David said he'd already been in there before and too have fun.

We walked in, Midnight wouldn't move two inches from me with her ears pulled back against her head. Ash pulled out his pokedex to do research on ghost pokemon. We ventured further out into the house when I heard something.

"What's that?" I asked and we stopped where the noise was coming from. It came from below us, there was a large hole in the floor and there was something groaning down there.

"You think it could be a pokemon?" Ash asked excited.

"Maybe," I grinned, his excitement seemed to be coming off and onto me. Pikachu did thunderbolt, Midnight did shadow ball, and Charmander did flamethrower. Below, we could see the flames from charmander's attack start running around in circles.

But then some kind of ghost pokemon appeared two inches from us and we screamed, jumping back surprised. Seeing it was a pokemon, Ash quickly checked his pokedex. I looked at it over his shoulder, but there was no data. That was confusing.

"I'm going to catch it," Ash said determined. He sent out charmander, but the ghost quickly disappeared. Where'd it go?

"Not now, Pikachu." Ash said. Pikachu looked up from his spot at my feet.

"What are you talking about, Ash?" I asked.

"Pika?" Pikachu asked. Ash slowly turned and we all saw a large hand on his shoulder.

"Charmander, leer!" Ash freaked out. Charmander tried to pull off a scary ready to battle face, but his face only looked funny, making the Haunter pokemon laugh.

"Hey, that wasn't nice." Ash scolded, but Haunter decided to use lick and paralyze charmander.

"Um…" I wasn't sure what to say to that.

"Return, charmander." Ash said, recalling the pokemon into its ball. That was when a Gengar flew through the floor and smacked me and Ash with a fan. Midnight growled at them while I held my stinging cheek. The ghosts stuck their tongues at Midnight and he ducked behind me. Ash looked at his pokedex but just like before, there was no information on the device.

Gengar smacked Haunter with the fan and laughing. The two ghost pokemon were obviously trying to make me and Ash laughed but they just looked like idiots to me. The pokemon looked like they were about to cry and sunk through the floor. I shrieked when Ash and Pikachu suddenly ran past me quickly. They dived at the floor, trying to get the pokemon, but it was too late. They crashed onto the floor.

"Guys…you alright?" I asked hesitantly. Then I heard something creak above me. I slowly looked up and saw the chandelier falling down at us. Before I could move, it landed on Ash, Pikachu, and me. Glass shattered and Midnight yelped and nudged my hand sticking out from beneath it with his nose. Everything went black.

The next time I woke up, I could feel shockwaves going over my body as I stared at my unconscious body below me under the glass. Ash and Pikachu lay next to me and Midnight was nudging my hand. Was I dead? I couldn't be dead! There was so much stuff I haven't done yet! I haven't even got all the badges to enter the official contest! I only had like one.

"What's going on?" Someone asked quietly behind me. Turning around, I saw that it was Ash and Pikachu only…I could look straight threw them. I looked down at my own hand and realized that it was transparent.

The ghost pokemon grabbed the back of our shirts and Pikachu's tail to bring us to the top of the tower, right through the roof I thought we were going to crash into. "Wow," Ash said, amazed by the view. I was just as amazed, unable to say anything. The stars were shining, I've never seen so many not covered by the flashing lights of the city. Below, I could see Misty and Brock so we flew down there.

"They're taking too long," Misty said. "Maybe we should go find them."

"I'm sure they're fine." David said and for a second, I thought he was looking straight at me.

"Misty," Ash said. Misty looked behind her shoulder, hearing him.

"Ash, what are you planning?" I asked. My question was answered when Ash pulled Misty into the air. She shrieked as he dropped her but Brock caught her. Ash, Pikachu, and the ghosts burst out laughing. "Ash, that wasn't funny," I said but I was having a hard time containing my own laughter.

Misty jumped to her feet and took off running to the tower, Brock following close behind while David followed more slowly, not at all worried. Ash, Pikachu, and I took off flying with the ghost pokemon, laughing as we went. Only minutes later were we led to what looked like a giant toy room.

"I see now, you just wanted friends," I said quietly.

The ghost tried to get us to play with them, but we just couldn't. "I'm sorry, but we can't stay here." Ash said. "I have to get back so I can become a pokemon master."

"Right, and I have my own quest to finish." I said. The ghosts were sad, not wanting us to go but we had to.

When we got back to the tower, Misty, David, and Brock had pulled our bodies from under the chandelier and were trying desperately to wake us. Midnight was whimpering and had her head lying on my stomach. I looked at Ash and Pikachu. We nodded and lay down on top of our bodies. When I opened my eyes again, I was staring up at David and Brock. "Ugh, what hit me?" I groaned, feeling pain in my upper arms.

"Just a giant chandelier," David answered while putting his arms under mine and helping me stand up. Ash was leaning up himself while Pikachu was waking up. I laughed as Midnight jumped up to lick my cheek just like a giant puppy. Don't tell anyone this, but I think Misty looked like she was about to cry. If anyone said this, she would probably bring her mallet out.

The next day, they were about to leave after Ash decided he wasn't going to get a ghost pokemon. That was when the Haunter appeared behind us. Misty, Brock, and Midnight quickly ran away screaming. Ash, David, Pikachu, and I laughed.

"So you want to join me?" Ash asked the pokemon and we started on our journey back to Saffron city, where Sabrina and my own challenge was awaiting.


	23. Two badges are Won

Haunter VS Kadabra:

Dust's POV:

We were finally returned to Saffron city, and I was ready to watch the battle with Sabrina. Haunter was floating around us. "Oh yeah, you just wait Sabrina, I'm going to win with Haunter." Ash smirked. I had a feeling he was starting to get a big head again.

"Ash, maybe you should wait for the confident talk for after you beat Sabrina." I suggested. Haunter started to grin and licked Misty's face, however, he just ended up paralyzing her.

"Hey, that wasn't nice." Ash said, scolding the Haunter and he started to cry. I groaned, putting my hands over my ears.

"Make it stop," I begged.

"Haunter, please stop, it's okay." Ash said quickly and the pokemon stopped crying. "Hey, do you want to help me go against Sabrina?" Ash asked hopefully as I lowered my arms. Haunter agreed but I doubted he even knew who Sabrina was.

A few minutes later, we all stood in front of the gym. "Alright, let's go!" Ash exclaimed. He started his walk to the door, only to stop when he realized only David and I were following him. The others obviously didn't want to go in because of what happened last time. Sure, it was terrifying but it was also kind of exciting. Not on the top of my to-do list but I wasn't about to turn away from an adventure. Man, not even Pikachu wanted to go in, nor did Midnight.

"Oh come on, I'll win this!" Ash insisted but the others weren't budging.

"Maybe Haunter is controlling Ash," Brock suggested

"Don't be ridiculous." David remarked but Haunter just kept laughing and laughing. How could anyone, even a ghost, be so happy and cheerful? That was one question that I would never know the answer too.

"Fine then, if you won't go on," Ash pulled his pokeballs out and called on Charmader, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur. They were now prepared to go in and get ready for one hard badge to win. Now that I think about it, I wonder where my gym battle would be. Nah, I'll find it after we help Ash win his psychic badge.

A few minutes later, everyone stood in the area where Sabrina sat holding her doll. "Sabrina, I want a rematch!" Ash announced as we stood in the background to watch.

"Very well, Kadabra." Sabrina said, sending out her pokemon.

"Haunter,"Ash called but the pokemon didn't appear.

"Huh, where is he?" I asked, looking around, expecting him to jump out any second just to scare us.

"Oh, he's somewhere enjoying himself in the city," David said dismissingly, waving his hand without a worry. Curse him and his nonchalantness!

"Then why did we come here if you knew he wouldn't show." I huffed but he didn't give me an answer, instead he merely looked slightly board.

"What? Haunter!" Ash wailed, freaking out.

"Enough stalling, send out your pokemon at once or you'll all go back to the toy box." Sabrina threatened in that same emotionless monotone that we really creepy. I didn't want to go back to the toy box!

"Um…okay, Pikachu." Ash said but Pikachu back us scared, refusing to go. Ash turned to his three other pokemon he had out but they all backed up. Sabrina was terrifying and I had to agree with them, I wouldn't want to battle against her either.

"Well?" Sabrina demanded and I knew we were about to be thrown back into the toy box.

"Wait! I quit!" Ash called out. Everyone looked at him. That's when he decided to run out. So we all ran after him. Well, everyone except for David, who seemed determined to tick me off. So I grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him along. However, before we could leave, the little girl appeared, turning Brock and Misty into dolls.

David's POV

To tell the truth I was more ticked off than my bored demeanor betrayed. I wished I could just storm into the Saffron gym and break Sabrina's self inflicted apathy. But I couldn't, for the sake of all involved and that left me feeling a bit useless and I hate feeling useless! Sabrina's Dad showed up and teleported everyone else out. I relied on my own teleportation.

"You really need to work on your multiple teleportation aim." I quipped as Ash, his pokemon, Dust, and Midnight all fell from a few feet up. He gave me the evil eye but after facing down the likes of Sephiroth a little evil eye from a human psychic was nothing. He then told everyone the story of Sabrian. Only Ash was dense enough not to realize that he was Sabrina's Dad.

[I can't believe Ash thinks this guy is a photographer!] Lucario exclaimed

"This _is _Ash we're talking about." Pikablue remarked but it was still funny to watch everyone's reactions to Ash's knowledge, or lack thereof. So with that, Sabrina's dad told Ash to find haunter first before trying to face Sabrina again. As we were walking along I heard Team Rocket expounding the greatness of the net and then haunter came along and nearly turned Team Rocket into a bunch of ghosts. But they survived and made quite the impression on the sidewalk. Bad David! No puns! Well at least we had found haunter.

"You'd better warn us if haunter decides to go AWOL again or else!" Dust threatened but again, I was completely unconcerned.

"Maybe I will, maybe I won't. It depends on your eagerness, or lack thereof, in future keyblade training. Because believe me, you don't want to be anywhere near an invisible unless you have a good deal of training under your belt.

"What do Heartless have anything to do with this?" Dust asked

"Patience you must have, young padawan." I replied but that just made her even more ticked off at me. Finally we got to the gym. Sabrina brought out Brock and Misty, but they were still dolls. Just as the battle was about to begin haunter vanished again and Dust started yelling at me.

"YOU IDIOT! YOU MAY NOT CARE ABOUT THE REST OF US, BUT I DON'T WANT TO BE TURNED INTO A DOLL!" She screeched, she didn't know that being a keyblade wielder afforded her a good deal of protection against offensive psychic abilities, such as being turned into a doll. She would know that if she had been more willing to study. I still don't know why she's so determined to ignore her keyblade.

"Why don't you forfeit?" Sabrina asked in that same monotone

"That way I'll have new dolls to play with!" the doll cheered but Pikachu decided to take the field. Somehow Pikachu managed to get in one powerful thunderbolt, but kadabra just used recover. Just then haunter showed up and started doing all sorts of stupid, silly things. I particularly liked the bit where he licked off his own eyes. He then pulled out a bomb from somewhere.

[DUCK AND COVER!] Lucario shouted and did just that, but he needn't have bothered. The bomb went off leaving both Sabrina and haunter looking ridiculous. Pikablue and I appreciated the scene and started laughing and then Sabrina joined in as well. Sabrina's Dad was crying for joy. Dust, however, wasn't so pleased. She marched over to me and tried to punch me in the abdomen. I say try because when her fist made contact I felt nothing more than a dull thud and Dust had hurt her hand.

"Word of advice for the future, never try and punch a fighting type pokemorph; particularly in the abs." I informed her, but she just shot me a dirty look while nursing her injured hand. On a different note, Ash still thought Sabrina's Dad was a photographer. I returned my attention to the comedic relief that is the wonderful haunter. Of course, with trainer and pokemon incapacitated Ash was the winner. Also, with her apathy broken the doll vanished, Brock, Misty, and Sabrina's Mom were returned to normal, and Dust had a chance of winning herself a badge and after Sabrina had calmed down enough Dust did just that.

"I wonder if I deserve this marsh badge." Ash remarked but Misty told him that making Sabrina laugh herself into a defeat was a great strategy. I hung back and got Team Rocket out of the cement and after they were done thanking me they took off and I caught up with the others. Next stop, celadon city!


	24. Pokemon Movie One

Hello everybody! We're here at the first pokemon movie for this story! Prepare yourselves, for this chapter will be packed full of some very interesting things. So hold on to your lunch, we're going in!

David's POV

Well, the day had finally dawned. Soon we would be facing this place's Mewtwo. The air was heavy with destiny...I never did like that feeling. For better or worse, things of great importance will make themselves known. With any luck it'll get Dust to actually start using her keyblade on her own. But there is something that is even more worrisome. If Ash gets killed then the point of unity might come undone and this dimension will come crashing down around our ears.

[I'm finally going to see Mewtwo like he was back when he was a psychopath!] Lucario exclaimed

"And you're happy about this?" Pikablue asked with a look of disbelief

[Second hand stories just aren't as good.] Lucario explained and with that pikablue and I face vaulted. Sometimes I have to wonder what goes on inside that head of his. Meanwhile, Ash was complaining about how hungry he was. Of course, when battle called Ash forgot his stomach and accepted the challenge.

"I sometimes think he has a second stomach just for emergency pokemon battles." Dust muttered while shaking her head. Then my radio turned itself on once again, treating us to the opening theme remix. Ash schooled the poor sap of course.

"Awesome as always pikachu!" Pikablue called out

"What was that music?" Dust asked

"This." I pulled out my old radio "This thing has a mind of its own and every so often it'll turn on and play some music. I don't have any control over it." I informed her and we all settled down for lunch. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...FWOOSH! That pesky dragonite blew by and ruined our lunch. Dragonite then gave Ash the invite to Mewtwo's 'event'. Dust recognized this and almost panicked, but I calmed her down before she said something everyone involved would regret.

[This is one of the few times when we have to try and not interfere. Or else we'll get a lot more trouble than we bargained for.] Lucario explained and we headed over to the warf. Of course, on the way Mewtwo whipped up his genocide storm. Officer Jenny announced that the boat was cancelled and no one was happy. Of course, some trainers devised their own ways of getting over to New island.

"COME BACK HERE OR I'LL PLACE YOU UNDER ARESST!" Officer Jenny shouted, but somehow I don't think any of them cared. I decided to make my own travel arrangements, aka just swimming over there, while everyone else got in Team Rocket's boat.

"Are you sure you can handle this?" Misty asked

"I'm a pokemorph and this'll make for excellent training!" And with that I began swimming to New Island. Most people would have dove down deep to avoid the worst of the waves, but I wasn't here to take the easy way out. It also allowed me to keep an eye on their boat. Ash then made the Vikings in Minnesota crack and Lucario knocked him upside the head with a bone rush. It wasn't much later that a great big wave showed up.

"SURF'S UP!" I shouted and then we got pummeled by the wave. Of course, Team Rocket's disguise was washed away and they tried to do the motto when we were hit with another wave.

[Remind me to invest in some waterwings.] Lucario grumbled as he resurfaced and eventually everyone was more or less safe riding on water types. Eventually we made it to New island and I was actually feeling pretty energized. I had just conquered some of the nastiest waves ever! We were escorted to the audience chamber and told to release our pokemon. So we did.

"So how are we gonna handle this?" Pikablue asked

[Just go with the flow.] I responded and Lucario burst out laughing

[You and 'go with the flow' don't mix!] Lucario crowed and then the lights we dark All the pokemon were suddenly on edge and with good reason. Mewtwo then presented himself.

"A pokemon can't be a pokemon master!" One of the trainers shouted and Mewtwo basically told him to shut up and then tried to torture the kid. Not on my watch.

[Who dares defy me?] Mewtwo shouted in outrage

"That would be me! I just can't let you run around hurting innocent humans can I? Or course I can't!" I said in a very chipper tone. I don't know what it is, but for some reason the last time I was here I had a strong feeling to do something Doctor related as well. Mewtwo then tried to assault me with his psychic powers.

[Bow to me!] He shouted

"Give it up twosie! I've got almost a decade's worth of experience over you and a heck of a lot more power. You have about a snowball's chance in a volcano of overpowering me." This only served to get Mewtwo more PO'd at me. The water type trainer then told gyrados to use hyperbeam. Mewtwo blocked this and sent it back. Mewtwo then cut his psychic link to the nurse Joy. He then proceeded to insult everyone and everything that came to mind.

"Human brains aren't tiny!" Pikablue protested at that particular insult but Mewtwo ignored him and continued on his monologue. When he had finished I jumped.

"I'm gonna kick your sorry purple butt into next week!" I shouted and went in to punch him. He tried to stop me with a psychic sheild but that served only to slow me down. In the end the punch connected and I proceeded to hit him a few more times with a grin growing on my face.

"Do you have some issues to work out?" Dust asked

"No!" I called back as I landed a particularly nasty right hook

"Are you sure?" Dust asked again and I turned my head

"Maybe a little bit." I responded and then Mewtwo decided to fight dirty. He kicked me right where it hurt the most and I went down like a sack of bricks.

Dust's POV

David collapsed after Mewtwo's 'retaliation'. Then Mewtwo caused a trap door to open and David dropped down while Mewtwo smirked. Mewtwo then went into a monologue about hating humans and pokemon.

"You have no right to say that!" I shouted and then Pikachu stood up for Ash and then when Mewtwo tossed Pikachu Ash saved him.

[What did you do to David?] Lucario yelled at Mewtwo

[What I have done to the upstart is of no importance right now.] Mewtwo responded and I felt chills run up my spine. Then one of the trainers tried to catch Mewtwo but failed miserably. Mewtwo then boasted that he was invincible.

"Then you won't mind proving it!" Ash called out

[Is that a challenge?] Mewtwo asked in a bemused voice

"You bet it is!" Ash shot back and then Mewtwo showed us his 'enhanced' charizard, blastoise, and venasaur.

[Like most trainers I began with squirtle, bulbasaur, and charmander. But for their evolved forms I took their genetic material to create more powerful clone copies.] Mewtwo informed us.

"Should we be impressed? 'Cause I'm sure not." We all whipped around and spotted David just relaxing in to doorframe. Mewtwo seemed furious but didn't rise to David's bait. He instead opened up a wall to show us a stadium. Two of the trainers said that their originals could take down the clone version. Ash only had a charmander so David stepped in with a moltres.

[Your charizard had better watch out! David's moltres'll take him down!] Lucario exclaimed

[We shall see about that.] Mewtwo responded and we moved onto the battlefield. First up was the venasaur vs. venasaur match. The original got his butt kicked and next up was the two water types. Again the original was overwhelmed. Finally it was moltres vs. charizard but the clone was just too fast and in the end moltres fell.

"Moltres! Cure!" David threw up the healing spell and most of moltres' wounds were healed.

[As the victor I claim my prize: your pokemon!] Mewtwo proclaimed and then sent three black pokeballs after the three fallen pokemon. They got the venasaur and blastoise but David wasn't about to let him get moltres.

"Protect!" With that a barrier of wind surrounded moltres and David and the black pokeball couldn't get through. Mewtwo got really mad and called forth more of those black pokeballs and after throwing Ash into Brock sent them after all of our pokemon. David recalled his moltres along with the rest of his pokemon except lucario and pikablue and then began to attack the black pokeballs with his keyblade, but for every one he destroyed, two more took its place.

"Mewtwo can't get them if they're already inside their pokeballs!" Ash exclaimed but when he tried that the pokeballs were captured too.

"Midnight!" I cried as my dark type was taken too. Only pikablue, lucario, and Pikachu were left.

"Try this on for size!" David shouted and hoisted his keyblade in the air. Then balls of light appeared and went to the tip of the keyblade. He then did a backflip while ramming his keyblade into the ground and then a blinding light filled the area. A good number of the black pokeballs had been destroyed but, again, more took their place. Eventually Pikachu, pikablue, and lucario were all caught as well. But they didn't get any of the pokemon in David's pokeballs. Finally, I watched in shocked horror as clones of all the original pokemon came into the arena. Suddenly there was an explosion and then Ash appeared out of the haze, leading the originals.

"You want a war Mewtwo? Well you've got it!" David shouted as pikablue and lucario ran to his side. Ash, taking a leaf from David's book, tried to punch Mewtwo in the gut. This was met with failure as Ash was thrown back and when he tried again he was tossed up into the air, it seemed he would be killed, but a pink bubble appeared and saved him. Then Mew appeared.

"So cute!" I couldn't help myself. In the dictionary there had to be a picture of Mew under the word 'cute'.

[Can it be?] Mewtwo said in wonder but then launched an orb of psychic energy at Mew. He did so several more times but each time Mew teleported away until finally he got lucky. Mewtwo thought he had won but then a blue orb of psychic every nailed him. Mewtwo then issued the challenge. David's radio then kicked on. The pokemon…the originals against the clones were fighting against each other. "Stop it!" I protested, trying to push two midnight's, my umbreon, away from each other. I couldn't tell which was which! But when one tried to attack me to get out of the way and the one behind me pushed me down before it could hit us, I kind of figured it out. I sighed realized and then tried to pull two of my Kakuna's, an original and clone, away from each other as they rolled around on top of the other. This was wrong but I didn't know how to stop it. So much pointless pain…

David's POV

The clone pikachu were slapping the originals and I knew that if I didn't act fast then Ash was toast and in all likelihood so was the rest of this dimension. But everything I thought of only lead to too much death and destruction. All the fighters collapsed and Mew and Mewtwo were in position. It was do or die time. But then the choice was taken out of my hands by an unknown factor. A new combatant had taken the battle field.

"What is that?" Dust asked

"It's a Nobody, it looks like a twilight thorn. But it isn't." I told her and all the pokemon were so awed they stopped. I summoned my keyblade and for some odd reason it was shattered light. As soon as I had done that the thing, the name dawn thorn came to me, shot off some tendrils and I dodged most of them with reversal but one hit me in the left shoulder and drew blood. First I need to take a bit of a timeout to tell something about HP. It basically works as a shield that keeps you from getting too hurt while you still have some left. This is why Sora isn't cut to ribbons when he fights Sepheroth. But you can bypass HP. Keyblade wielders can do this and so can some others. But it takes a lot of energy, that's why we don't do it all the time. Of course it seems this guy can do it at will.

[This isn't good!] Lucario shouted as I threw up a cure to try and speed the healing but more tendrils shot out and this time caught me in the right thigh. My sight was beginning to go fuzzy.

"LOOK OUT!" Pikablue bellowed but it was too late, I saw two last tendrils, heading right for both my hearts.

? POV

We had intervened just in time. The tendrils were mere centimeters away from impact.

"What's going on?" Came a frightful voice and we turned and saw Dust.

"Time has been stopped." We explained simply

"Did you do it David?" Dust asked and a rueful sort of smile came upon our borrowed face.

"We are not really David; we're just borrowing his body for a bit. We are actually the Light and the Darkness." A puzzled look came upon Dust

"But Light and Darkness are opposites. Why are you both inhabiting David?" Dust questioned

"Because David is a very unique individual. All hearts in existence have one thing in common: They are all tipped in favor of either Light or Darkness. Some hearts have more Light than Darkness in their hearts while others have more Darkness than Light; except for one. In David's heart there exists an equal amount of both the Light and the Darkness. That is why he can play host to both of us, and indeed, the reason we saved him." We explained

"But what does that mean?" This girl was just full of questions, and rightfully so, one of her friends had just nearly been killed and we were now inhabiting his body.

"It means many things. But for our purposes right now, it means he can both use the Light and the Darkness without fear of getting hurt or losing control." We answered

"Then why does David only use the Light?"

"Because he doesn't know that he can use the Darkness. Before we go on we must tell you that David will remember nothing of this. While the Darkness is his to use by right, he must learn how to use and accept the Darkness on his own. But you can tell him of this. It could prove to be beneficial." We told her and then lifted up David's first keyblade: Shattered Light. "This keyblade signifies his dual nature, it shows that he is the one who is chosen to see the brightest light without getting blinded and be embraced by the deepest darkness without losing his way. He is The Dimension Traveler and he will preserve the balance between the Light and the Darkness until the end."

"Why are you telling me these things?" Dust asked

"You ask the right questions Dust. That is why I, The Darkness, have chosen you. Just as the Light has chosen champions to protect it from evil so do I, from time to time, chose my own. But you have been unaware of your true nature for far too long. Dust Nekomis, you are the Lady of Darkness and you have been chosen to use my powers to fight the evil in the Realms of Light. Now awake and fulfill your calling!" With that we called pointed the keyblade at Dust's heat and a beam of Darkness shot forth and into her heart. The only witness, the full moon. We then dispatched the Nobody, made sure David would not remember this exchange and returned time to the normal flow.

Dust's POV

After all that had happened, I was shocked when I noticed my appearance had changed. My long golden blonde hair had grown out a few inches and was now a dark black color, natural clear white and bright blue highlights decorated it. David even told me later how my normal blue eyes were now a silver color, the color of the moon. While I looked pretty young normally, no older than 11 because of the change in dimensions, I had grown so I now had the body of a sixteen year old. My ears, slightly more pointed, twitched, I she could hear stuff I normally wouldn't. Like the trickle of water going down the walls, or the whirl of the machines that had cloned the pokemon. My sight also appeared to be sharper and cleaner.

Before I could go over anything else, Ash ran right past me, saying something about how he had to take a stand. "You're going to get killed!" I shouted after him. I tried to run after him but David grabbed my upper arm to prevent me from doing so.

"Dust, as much as I hate saying this, this is something Ash has to do, and he'll be alright." David said.

"How could you say that," I demanded, jerking my arm from him, an uncharacteristic anger burning in me. "He'll get killed!" I growled at him, swiping at his hand as he tried to grab my arm again. My normally nicer personality had shifted, making me more prone to anger; ready to attack something or someone instead of just waiting to see what would happen.

"Yes, but Ash has realized something," David said. "Although we're all different, it doesn't matter because we all are the same inside. The pokemon shouldn't have to fight just because one half is clones and the other half is originals. I know this is a gamble because of the point of unity. But we don't have much choice."

I had forgotten about the point of unity. Another tear leaked down my eye and I nodded. But by this time, there was an explosion that made me cover my eyes. When I looked back, Ash was falling over, his body now in stone.

The arena went completely quiet, and that was when I realized just what David meant. All of us so different, yet all our hearts went out for the young boy with a dream he'd never complete who had, in the end, given his life to stop the fighting. Ash's Pikachu ran to Ash and tried to make him wake up, even electrocuting him, but his stone body was still. Almost at the exact time, everyone started to cry, to cry for Ash.

Somehow, all our tears flew into the air, combining together over Ash and as it happened, the stone melted away as if it never existed and Ash slowly climbed to his knees. My tears were now happy tears, David was right Ash was going to be okay.

Mewtwo, who had been floating over the crowd and watching, had also realized something has he witnessed the heartwarming sacrifice. [I've realized that it does not matter who is more powerful,] Mewtwo said. [Both the clones and the originals have value and the circumstances of one's birth is irrelevant, it is what one does with life that determines one's destiny. But for now, it is best that nobody remembers what has happened here today.] Everything went dark.

When I opened my eyes, I felt…strange. As if something had happened, I felt stronger? Ash, Misty, Brock, David, and all our pokemon and a crowd of people stood inside the pokemon center. "What just happened?" I asked.

"I…don't know," Ash said and suddenly the memories rolled over us again. The whole Mewtwo thing with Ash dying. One look to David told me his was behind this remembering. Then again, it would have been pretty hard to explain why I now looked to be 16 years old without these memories. David then stewarded us out of the building to a place where we could talk freely.

"Everyone, please, everyone will be welcomed to take shelter in the pokemon center during the storm," Nurse Joy said as we passed.

I noticed in the air, a full moon half hidden behind the dark storm clouds stood out. And as I looked up at the sky, I could have sworn I saw what looked like a large group of individual pokemon flying over the horizon.

"I thought Mewtwo said we would forget everything." Ash said

"Under different circumstances I would have allowed you to forget. But due to circumstances beyond my control," He motioned to me," It's a lot easier for us if we all remembered."

"More spacifically you." I pointed out

"True. But that is unimportant. What _is _important is figuring out how and why you look like some kind of Moon Elf." David responded

"Moon Elf?" I protested, not at all happy with the new term, but he was already busy taking scans with his handheld.

"Well Ms. Elf, your basic DNA structure is still that of a human. So that puts a hole in a number of possible explanations. But the DNA appears to have evolved through thousands of years, because I don't know any regular human in this time that does this." David began

"Enough with the Elf." I growled but David just cocked an eyebrow in amusement

"And what do you think you can do to me? Growl me to death? Anyway, if I didn't know any better I would just say this is a defense mechanism; but I do know better." David continued

"What makes you say it isn't?" Misty asked

"Simple: highly increased estrogen levels. It also explains why Dust here is a little more moody than normal." David explained

"Huh?" Ash was lost

"Nothing that you need to know about right now Ash." Misty assured him, but the concept would probably go right over him anyway.

"Anyway, you now have three lungs, probably for enduring more strenuous activity," David continued and then got out a pen light and held it up to my eyes. "Eyesight that's on par with most owls," He got out some more equipment that I didn't recognize. "Hearing that's just a little less than my own, a lightning fast metabolism that is just about the same as mine, and a host of other improvements on the standard human body."

"Will I stay like this?" I asked

"Not likely. It would appear your body's energy is harmonizing with that of the full moon. I would imagine that once the moon begins to wane you should return to normal. Now then, can you tell me what might have brought this on?" David asked

"I can tell you, but only you." I responded and David shooed everyone else out of earshot. When he returned I told him about what had happened between me and the Light and the Darkness while they were in David's body.

"Food for thought, isn't it?" David remarked and I understood that David needed time to think about this before anything could be done. This is all so strange. I felt like I should be freaking out right now, but for some reason this feels too natural to be freaking out about. I wonder if I'll freak out when I change back?


	25. Primaeate Goes Banana's

Primaeate Goes Banana's:

DUST POV:

We were walking along when we came to a payphone out in the open and Ash decided to call Professor Oak, "Hello Ash, how's your journey going?"

"It's going great, I already have four badges," Ash grinned, opening his jacket to show off the four badges inside.

"Even though that last one was a close thing." David commented from over Ash's shoulder. I was staying out of sight for the most part; no need to give the poor professor a heart attack.

"That's great," Professor Oak said. "Gary and the others all have five badges and just passed through Celadon City!" Ash started growling; hating that Gary was so far ahead of them.

"Don't worry, Ash, because we're having fun on our journey. Their just racing by theirs, while we're creating memories," I said, trying to calm him down. He calmed down a little but he was still angry while David cocked an eyebrow at me. What? I'm not allowed to make good points?

"Ash, maybe you should try to catch more pokemon to become a better trainer, Gary has already caught thirty," Professor Oak said. I sighed as Ash got depressed and ended the call.

"What's wrong with you?" Misty asked as we joined her, Brock, David, Pikachu, Pikablue, and Midnight outside where they were eating. I hungrily grabbed a rice ball and started to eat.

"I'm so far behind from everyone else," Ash said.

"Only by one badge," I said. "I think we'll make it in time for the pokemon league."

"Well Celedon's city is down the trail that way," Brock said, pointing behind them.

"Ash needs to get there his own way," Misty said.

[Having fun on the way instead of rushing through it,] Lucario commented.

"Quality over quantity," Brock said.

"Hey look…" Pikachu said, getting our attention. Nearby was a brown colored pokemon. The pokemon, called Mankey that we found out from Ash's pokedex, hopped over, took the rice ball Brock was holding, hopped onto a rock and started to eat.

"Alright! A makey, I'm going to catch it." Ash said, throwing his pokeball.

"Have you learned nothing?" I asked. You think he would realize by now that you had to weaken the pokemon first to catch it. The mankey angrily threw the half eaten rice ball at the pokeball, making the pokeball catch it. He turned to them, his eyes an angry red.

"Congratulations Ash Ketchum! You just made a mankey very angry at you!" David said in the kind of voice those game show types use when you win a prize with just a touch of sarcasm. It's always interesting to watch a master at work.

"Here we go again." Pikablue grumbled. Well, this wasn't good. But you had to admit, Ash was the only one who could make a mankey that mad. "Once it goes into Thrash, it's hard to stop." The pokedex said. The mankey ran at us but everyone ran in different direction. Except David of course. He just gave mankey a steely eyed glint and said fighting type decided to leave the pokemorph alone.

Brock threw a rice ball at it, hoping it would make it stop, but it just made it even madder as he destroyed it with his fist. The mankey changed directions, rushing at Misty and me. Misty tripped and fell into my legs, knocking me down. I got up quickly and grabbed Misty and jumped out of the way as Midnight growled. But the mankey just jumped us, landing on top of Ash and pounding him.

When the mankey was finished, Ash was all bruised up and beaten the mankey climbed a nearby tree. "Where's my hat?" Ash asked, freaking out.

"Um…take a guess," David said, looking at the mankey. And true to his word, the mankey was wearing Ash's hat on his head. Although Ash was beaten, he struggled to climb the tree just go get his precious hat back.

"But I need that hat!" Ash cried as he tried getting his leg over one of the tree branches. "I won that hat at a pokemon league expo, the hat is very rare!"

"Hey, I remember entering that contest," Misty said.

"I sent in a million postcards." Ash said.

"No wonder I didn't win, I only sent in one." Misty smiled.

"You'll never win anything only sending your name in one time," I said.

David's POV

So, let's recap. Dust isn't going to be any help because she still hasn't gotten used to her new body. Ash is beat to a pulp and is also of no use. Misty is Misty and thus probably won't be very helpful. As for Brock? He's not going to get that hat back. Looks like it is up to me… the things I go through for these guys.

"AHHHHH!" Ash had just gotten beaten up by mankey again. Then who should show up but Team Rocket.

"Go away idiots… we really don't have time for you and I'm not in the mood." I growled and then mankey came to check out Team Rocket but James kicked him. I rest my case about Team Rocket being idiots. Although, come to think if it, this reminds me somewhat of the magikarp incident after we got free of the St. Anne. Then Team Rocket did the motto.

"I'm having a major hat crisis, could you steal Pikachu some other day?" Ash asked but of course Team Rocket wasn't going to listen to any of the 'twerps'.

"If you guys don't get out of here fast you're going to get whipped as badly as Ash here." Brock warned

"By who?" Jesse asked

"By mankey." Dust replied

"What's a mankey?" Jesse wondered and James thought that a mankey was what he kicked. So they looked and saw mankey giving them a supreme evil eye right before evolving. Then the fools looked primape in the eye.

"Rest in peace losers." Pikablue remarked but he knew as well as I did that primape wasn't going to kill them, but meowth didn't. The look on his face was priceless. Then Jesse got a knuckle sandwich and face planted into a rock.

"HOW DARE YOU RUIN MY PERFECTION! NOW YOU'LL PAY!" Jesse screamed

"Perfection? Who does she think she's kidding?" Dust wondered as Jesse sent all their pokemon after primape. While they were busy we ran, but Ash wanted his hat. So he sent Pikachu after it and Pikachu, despite all attempts to do otherwise, looked primape in the eye. Thankfully primape didn't notice and placed Ash's hat back on his head.

"THUNDERBOLT!" Ash ordered and primape got what was coming to him. Brock then guessed that primape was lonely and tried to be friends… this got him beat up and then he looked primape in the eye. All aboard primape air! Brock was knocked into LEO (Lower Earth Orbit). Ash checked the pokedex and it said that once primape uses thrash he's out of control.

"RUN!" Ash shouted and getting my butt kicked by primape wasn't on my to-do list. We came to a fork in the road so Ash and I took one road and everyone else took the other. Of course primape had to run after us.

"KEEP RUNNING!" I shouted

"I don't know how much longer I can keep this up!" Ash shouted back and suddenly we fell into Team Rocket's hole. Pikachu ended up shocking everyone but I had my volt absorb ability engaged so I was refreshed. Then Ash looked primape in the eye. He then came to a decision as the others caught up.

"Ash!" Misty called

"I'm going to capture primape!" Ash declared and Misty called him stubborn.

"He wouldn't be Ash if he wasn't stubborn." Dust pointed out and Ash sent out squirtle who soaked primape's head. He then returned squirtle and called out bulbasaur. Bulbasaur used razor leaf but it was all blocked so Ash called back bulbasaur and sent out charmander. Charmander got beat up pretty bad but then let loose his rage attack and his tail flame got huge.

"I have a feeling primape is toast." Pikachu commented and the two pokemon continued to go at it until charmander unleashed a super flamethrower. Pikachu dashed and snagged Ash's hat just before it could be incinerated by the fire.

"Pokeball go!" Ash shouted and after a few tense moments the familiar *ding* was heard and we knew Ash had caught primape. But suddenly it started to shake again and another *ding*. Now primape was definitely caught. Then those sorry saps known as Team Rocket crawled out of their hole.

"Where's primape?" Jesse asked

"Why don't you see for yourself?" Ash asked with a grin that would have made the Cheshire Cat proud and then threw primape's pokeball over his shoulder and into the hole where he then came out and attacked Team Rocket.

"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!"

Ash congratulated primape only to get a big black eye. Ash called back primape and charmander and then we spotted Celedon city. We're now ready to go against the grass type gym.


	26. Celadon City

The world of pokémon

OK, so we're finally to Celadon city! The return of the Ashley for David and for Dust, this might prove an interesting chapter. Anyway, on with the show!

David's POV

We were finally in Celadon city. But I had bigger things on my mind; like Dust's mental health. The Moon was waning and judging by the energy levels I'd say it won't be too much longer before Dust changes back, sometime today in fact. I was worried because she's been through a lot lately. First there was the whole 'coming to another world' bit and not long after she got her keyblade; which she is still avoiding like the plague. Now this, while she's fine now I know it's because she's too caught up in the feeling of rightness provided by instinct. The instant she changes back I'm afraid she might snap.

[So what do you propose to do?] Lucario asked when I had shared my concerns.

[I have absolutely no idea. The best we can do right now is just pray that this all works out.] I responded

"And all the while we know you'll be about two seconds away from wetting yourself with anxiety." Pikablue quipped and for that got a bop on the head.

[She's a keyblade wielder, beyond so many other things. If she snaps then, well just look at the old loon Xehanort and tell me a crazy keyblade wielder isn't a bad thing.] I responded, [Probably the best we can hope for is a minor case of extreme alienation and some depression.]

[Is that all?] Lucario rolled his eyes [I thought it might be something _serious_.] Lucario mocked

[If you have a better idea I'm all ears.] I responded

"Hey guys, the others have left us." Pikablue commented calmly and we had to go find that perfume shop. We found them just as Misty, Dust, and pikachu were trying some perfume. Then the patented Ash Ketchum foot-in-mouth technique kicked in.

"Don't buy it you two!" Ash exclaimed

[I remember this story! This is gonna be fun!] Lucario cried with an evil grin on his face.

"Perfume's just a waste of money! And it stinks!" Ash declared and while, several years ago, I would have been inclined to agree with him; I now know how helpful different smells can be for not only psychics, but everyone.

"Go away." Misty ordered him and Dust didn't look too pleased either.

"I resent that remark!" Cue Erika, the gym leader of Celadon city and owner of this perfume shop. She then asked Ash if he thought that she was overcharging for inferior products.

"No Ma'am, I meant all perfumes are a rip-off. 'Cause all they do is turn guys into zombies, like this!" Ash explained, using Brock as exhibit A. Then everyone ganged up on him. Of course it was Lucario who stood by Ash's side. Now I won't be able to use him in the gym. After they got kicked out Erika turned on me.

"I reserve the right to fair process by law and the right to remain silent." I said before Erika could question me. I didn't trust myself to say anything else at the moment. Erika gave me a funny look and Dust was giving me fish eyes. "What? I can't know my rights?" Thankfully they left me alone.

"I half expected you to throw yourself in the line of fire for Ash." Pikablue remarked

[And end up dressed, or worse, like a girl? I've spent, and probably will spend, enough time pretending to be the opposite gender without actively seeking out opportunities to do so.] I retorted and we made our way to the gym, just in time to see Ash and lucario get the big red X. They left and I then walked up, fully expecting to be let in. But then the blue haired, X wielding girl called me a psycho and I got the X treatment.

"I pity your soul." Pikablue said to the girl, but I wasn't listening. Psycho, was I? A wicked grin spread on my now red marked face. Pikablue told me later that I looked remarkably like a sharpedo closing in on the next meal. I'LL SHOW THEM PSYCHO! So I projected illusions of all their worst fears, although why anyone would be afraid of a one legged gloom is beyond me.

"You should know by now it's not nice to call names." I taunted as I walked by, leaving them all to their own special torture. I cleaned off the X and went in search of Erika.

DUST POV:

Not long after Ash had gotten kicked out, I, Midnight, Misty, and Brock were with a group of people listening to a story told by Erika and that was when David joined us. That was when, being led in by one of the perfume workers, was a small girl about Ash's height, wearing an orange dress with long blonde hair. For some reason David got an evil grin and started taking photos. If it had been anyone else I would have called them a pervert, but David usually has his reasons for doing strange things so I'll just wait and see how this develops.

"Hi, Ashley," I waved after the lady introduce her.

"Hi," Ashley said in a voice a little low to be for a young girl. But Ashley coughed and then repeated herself, her voice now higher and softer.

But then I noticed Pikachu was sniffing Ashley's foot, and Midnight was starting to sniff at the bottom of her skirt. "Midnight, what are you doing?" I demanded but Pikachu was already using thunder bolt on Ashley. To my surprise, her hair fell off, to reveal a very familiar boy underneath, using the dress and wig as a disguise, it was Ash! Now I know what David was doing: blackmail photos!

"I thought I had told the girls to keep you out." Erika snapped.

"That might be my fault. They might still be trapped in their nightmares." David commented and Erika gave him another funny look.

"What did you do David?" Misty asked in a weary sort of tone.

"That blue haired girl…" David started

"MY SISTER?" Erika screeched

"Yeah, she had the never to call me a psycho. So I conjured up illusions of all their worst fears and sic'd them on them." David finished

"Why am I not surprised?" I asked, looking upward. After we sorted that out (With liberal use of mallets) Ash, still in his dress, finally challenged Erika.

"I am Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town; it's my destiny to become a pokémon master! To do that, I have to challenge you!" Ash exclaimed, pointing at Erika, the Celadon Gym Leader.

Erika looked at the ten year old, "Well, I guess I have no choice but to accept. It'll be a three on three match," she explained. The match started while our group stood to the side. I was slowly clapping my hands, closely watching the battle.

"Go Bulbasaur!" Ash shouted, throwing out his pokeball. In a beam of red light, his pokémon appeared, ready to fight.

"Tangela, I chose you!" his competitor shouted, some kind of vine pokémon appearing on the battle field.

"What is that?" I asked.

"Tangela, a vine pokémon, its body is wrapped in vines. The rest of its form is hidden beneath these vines," David said, sounding suspiciously like a pokedex.

"That's me, the living pokedex." David remarked in a smug tone.

"Stay out of my head!" I shouted and hit him with my new mallet. I can see why Misty enjoys doing it to Ash so much.

"Bulbasaur, vine whip!" Ash shouted. Erika called her attack and Tangela used constrict to attack Bulbasaur and then used stun spore.

Ash returned Bulbasaur and took only a few seconds to choose charmander and Erika choose Weepinbell.

"Weepinbell, razor leaf!" Erika cried but Ash countered attack by using flamethrower, burning up all the leaves. Ash used a skull bash and knocked out the weepinbell.

Erika called her pokémon back to his pokeball and used her final pokémon, a gloom. She had a stink bomb attack that quickly knocked out Ash's charmander.

"Poor Ash, your pokémon could use some more training," Erika taunted. It was Pikachu who decided he would be the next pokémon to fight. However, Team Rocket showed up and did their motto before the match could be finished.

"Don't these guys ever give up?" I grumbled. They ended up setting off a bomb that made them blast off again but the bomb caused a fire to erupt. I was coughing and choking on smoke as we fought our way out of the building but the others used what water pokémon they had, or David using psychic power to help carry large amounts of water, to help put the fire out. My oddish and Pidgey were trying to help Midnight put the fire out. Brock's geodude was throwing dirt onto the fire.

"What's the matter?" Misty asked as Erika ran up in a panic.

"I can't find Gloom anywhere," Erika said.

"Oh no," I gulped, turning back to the building in flames.

"Did Gloom get out?" Ash asked.

"What if Gloom's still inside?" Erika asked.

I cried out as Ash ran past me and into the fire. "Ash!" I cried.

"Don't worry, he'll be fine," David said. I slowly nodded but refused to take my eyes off the building. Ash had quickly become one of my best friends here in this world, Ash had a dream, he couldn't just die because he had to play hero and dive into the fire!

It was what seemed like hours later, when in reality was only a few minutes, Ash came out carrying Gloom in his arms.

Not long later, Erika decided to give Ash his rainbow badge, despite not actually finishing the match.

It was the next day before we left; David and I decided to win our celadon badges, which we did. Congrats to me, I'm proud of myself now. You needed six badges in the competitions and so far, I currently had three badges.

As we left Celadon City, I started to feel different and noticed my friends were starting to stare at me. "What?" I questioned. My question was answered when David pulled out a mirror from his bag and showed it to me. In the reflection was me, my normal self, blonde hair, blue eyes. Certainly not the me I woke up with and had been having for the last couple days. I stared at my reflection, not sure how to react now.

"Well, you're no longer a moon elf." David quipped

"You just couldn't go without saying that, could you?" I growled

"Nope." He replied with a smirk

"Just leave me alone, I need some time to think." I grumbled and, thankfully, they took the hint and left me alone for the rest of the day.


	27. Hypno's Naptime

Dust's POV:

"It feels like all these buildings are closing in on us," Ash said as they walked through a large city.

"And they're all so tall you can hardly see any sky," Misty said.

"This makes me wonder if I prefer the forest to such a crowded place," I commented, dodging a little kid who was being chased by his mother. She never liked loud places, she preferred a more quiet place where you weren't bumping into people at every turn and you didn't have to scream over the noise to talk to another,

"Where are we, Brock?" Ash asked.

"Hop hop hop town," Brock said.

[Some name,] Lucario muttered.

"Arnold!" a middle aged woman suddenly cried. I shrieked as I was pushed to the side as the woman grabbed Ash into a hug as if embracing an old friend you hadn't seen in years. "Where have you been Arnold? Father's been so worried,"

"Miss, I think you mistook our friend, Ash, for someone else," David said and the woman let Ash go. Apparently, the woman had thought Ash was her son. The woman led us to a park and explained that her son Arnold disappeared and had been gone for three days.

"And you haven't heard from him?" Brock asked.

"Not a word," the woman told them.

"That's strange," I muttered. How could a child just disappear and nobody find a clue as to where he could have gone.

"Would he have gone off to become a pokémon trainer?" Ash asked.

"He did like pokémon of course, but he never mentioned anything about becoming a trainer. Do you think he'll come home soon?"

"Well, he's not the only child to go missing," David said, pointing at the wall behind us where missing child posters were stacked up. There were at least thirty children who had gone missing and had yet to return. How could nobody notice all those children going missing the same day? Somebody had to see something…anything!

That was when another Officer Jenny showed up. There are at least twenty Jenny's and every one of them decided to be a cop, at least they all didn't stay in the same city, that would got even more confusing.

"Excuse me; are you the cousin or second cousin of the Jenny at maiden's peak?" Ash asked the officer.

"I'm her cousin's cousin," Officer Jenny explained.

"Well it's easy to see their related, by looks and personality," I huffed. And as always, Brock started to flirt but Misty took care of that with a swift mallet to the head. A few minutes later, we were all in the pokémon center, trying to find any clues as to where all those children could have disappeared to. Nurse Joy didn't know anything about the children, but she did know was another mystery. She ended up showing us all the weak pokémon in the center. Ash, seeing a yellow duck pokémon, took out his pokedex to have a look. "Psyduck, a water pokémon, it uses a mysterious power to perform various attacks,"

"So what's causing all this?" Brock asked.

"I have no idea," Joy said.

"How long have they been acting like this?" Ash asked.

"Since three days ago," the Nurse answered.

"Three days okay?" Brock repeated. "That's exactly when those children disappeared,"

"That can't just be a coincidence," I noted. How could all of these pokémon get sick and many children go missing, all around the same time, they had to be related somehow, I just had to figure out how exactly.

"One mystery leads to another," Ash said.

"Look like we're playing detective," I sighed. I was not in the mood. After changing back from a _moon elf_ and now some great mystery, sometimes I wonder how I'm going to survive the PokeWorld in the first place.

David's POV

Under better circumstances I would be teasing 'the great detective mind' of Ash Ketchum. But right now I was too worried about Dust's well being. Ever since she had changed back she had been withdrawn, moody, and was only going through the motions. They were all classic signs of depression.

"Well, I could be worse." Pikablue said in a falsely hopeful tone

"How, pray tell, could this be worse?" I asked and as expected, he came up with nothing.

[What I don't get is why she's acting this way. You didn't go into a manic depression when you found out you were a pokemorph.] Lucario pointed out

[That might be because, at the time, I didn't have emotions. Thus, I couldn't become depressed. Or have you forgotten in your old age.] I half way teased as Officer Jenny's sleep wave detector went off. Of course my pokémon, thanks to their extensive anti-sleep training, were immune to the sleep waves.

"There could be any number of explanations. Maybe she watched a scary movie when she was little about human transformation and it scarred her for life. What matters is that she is definitely depressed and still hasn't used her keyblade at all! This is one fine pickle." Pikablue sighed.

[I only wish I knew how to help her. The longer this goes on the worse it'll get.] I remarked as we walked towards the hypno that was the source of the sleep waves.

"Don't forget her natural alignment: Darkness in and of itself can be depressing." Pikablue reminded us.

[I completely forgot about that; just another impossible puzzle piece in this impossible puzzle. Now we have to worry about her viewing herself as a monster because of her Darkness.] I moaned since this just kept getting better and better.

[Desperate times call for desperate measures.] Lucario remarked solemnly

"Well, we don't want her to get worse than she already is. If we just rush into this then that's where we'll end up." Pikablue commented and we had finally made it to the tower that had the hypno at the top. While the others 'stormed' the mansion, Pikablue, lucario, and I were just hanging back. The others learned that the hypno had evolved three days ago.

[It's scary how clueless they are sometimes.] Lucario quipped, weather he was talking about the sleep club or Ash and the group was unclear. Brock then explained how hypno's sleep waves are usually only for pokémon, but when they were modified for human use there were side effects. Brock then went on to say that it might have affected kids that are more sensitive to psychic energies.

"Those poor, lost kids; all alone without a clue as to who or what they are!" Pikachu cried in fake anguish. I rolled my eyes and just about then Misty got hypnotized by hypno.

"Where's the water? I want some water." Said the now hypnotized Misty in pokémon language. I could tell that Dust understood it too, but tried to pretend like she didn't. You know what they say; denial isn't just a river in Egypt. Misty then bolted outside. Of course we all chased after her.

"This is just great! We just had to get caught up in this thing." Dust groused and eventually we would up where all the lost little boys and girls go… to Neverland! Not really, we were by a lake I in the middle of the artificial park.

[And here I thought pretending to be a pokémon was your job.] Lucario joked, to which I promptly hit him. _Hard_.

"There's nothing 'pretend' about it. And you'd do well to remember it." I growled and then it was suggested that drowzee was used to counteract hypno's sleep waves. Of course the beta tester for this idea was Misty. So I dragged her back to the mansion and we sic'd drowzee on her. It worked, so Ash grabbed drowzee and took off for where the kids were. Of course on the way Team Rocket showed up. Let's just say that Dust wasn't happy with this turn of events. To make matters worse I saw Derek, who was trying to stay out of sight.

[What's he doing here?] Lucario wondered, but I was too worried to answer. Dust's psyche was fragile enough without Derek to mess with her. Team Rocket tried to trick hypno into hypnotizing himself, but Ash shattered their plans with a well placed potted plant. Team Rocket then went to plan B.

"Go staryu!" Misty shouted

"Get them midnight!" Dust called and they freed the two psychic type pokémon. Ash then had pidgeotto blow them away. If Derek knows what's good for him, he'll stay hidden. Otherwise he and my keyblade will have a nice long 'chat'. Anyway, we went and cured the children and they all went home as if nothing had happened. Even pikachu got better.

"All's well that ends well." Pikablue remarked and Derek slunk off through a dark corridor to wherever he called HQ. After we had cured the pokémon at the center Nurse Joy noticed psyduck was still holding his head. No surprises there, psyduck has always and will always, hold his head. Brock said he could cure psyduck and that's how he began to follow us.

"He's a water pokémon… you'd better take him Misty." Brock tried to weasel out of taking care of psyduck.

"Why would I want such a boring pokémon?" Misty questioned

"Because, what would he do without you?" I asked in turn and then Ash pulled out his pokedex.

"Psyduck always has a headache." Dexter said

"YOU MEAN THIS THING ALWAYS HOLDS HIS HEAD?" Misty shrieked

"I know; you'd expect a Nurse Joy to know such things." I quipped

"OH YEAH MR. SMARTYPANTS; IF YOU'RE SO SMART YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN TOO! Misty roared, turning on me

"I did know. I just decided not to tell you." I said calmly, which served only to enrage Misty more. As she advanced towards me she tripped and a pokeball rolled right into psyduck. He then pecked the pokeball once to enlarge it and then again to capture himself.

"Good work Misty, you captured psyduck." Ash remarked, with a barely contained smirk.

"Now I've got a headache." Misty complained

"Just keep that headache away from me." Dust said while warding off the headache.

"DON'T CONGRADULATE ME!" Misty shouted as I offered up my own congratulations. I may not have a clue as to how to help Dust, but that doesn't mean I have to be down in the dumps.


	28. Suzie and Vulpix plus Team Rocket

The world of pokémon

**For those who are in an uproar about Dust not using her keyblade, well… things will change soon enough. But not in this chapter! Also, if you're good boys and girls and review then MSkitty and I might whip up something special about Derek and 'the bad man'. We will do this when we have 30 total reviews; now on to the chapter.**

David's POV

I was getting seriously worried about Dust. Her aura was losing its vibrancy, as if she had lost the will to live. I wonder what has driven her to this. What had driven her to this much self-hatred and self-disgust? Well, we were headed to Scissor Street and maybe the fashion will help cheer Dust up.

"Is there any place in particular you'd like to visit Brock?" Ash asked, but he got no reply. Misty then mentioned that Scissor Street was also known as Breeder's Lane.

"So what's the game plan?" Pikablue asked, but before I could answer Misty and Dust spotted a poster of some poor, dressed up pokémon. An ekans and a koffing to be precise and they were just as much of an eye sore as the last time I had passed through Scissor Street. But Misty and Dust thought it was cute, so for her sake I grinned and bared it.

[Isn't this a Rocket trap?] Lucario asked as Misty dragged Ash along. Dust would have probably tried to drag me if she didn't know it was pointless. So she settled for dragging Brock.

[This is indeed a Rocket trap; although it would be just as effective as an eye destroyer. That is one ugly poster.] I remarked and we followed the others. So we walked up to the entrance of 'salon Rockét'. The others thought this sounded familiar, but beyond that it didn't raise any alarms; just then a woman with a riachu and dodrio, who had gotten makeovers, walked by. Pikablue shuttered at the sight of them and I didn't need to be psychic to tell that the pokémon were nothing short of horrified at their new looks.

"I think I'll get in line." Misty said and Dust looked like she was considering joining her.

"Please no! For the love you have for us pokémon, don't make us go in there!" Midnight begged, but thankfully Brock spotted the place he'd been looking for. It was Suzie's place and it was nothing fancy, but it was better that way. Brock was so nervous that he couldn't bring himself to open the door.

"What are you so nervous about?" Ash asked as we entered and then he rushed in before the door could close. And there she was; just as I remembered her. She was giving a chansey a massage and the pink pokémon couldn't have been more relaxed. When she was finished chansey began to dance around. Then a real… colorful dresser walked in. At first I couldn't tell if the customer was male or female, but the voice gave it away. Chansey and the customer left and then she turned to Ash. Ash said we were just browsing, Brock tried to object, and Misty with Dust walked over both of them and cooed over the vulpix. Ash got out his pokedex and Dexter told him about vulpix. Misty then made the mistake of picking up vulpix.

"Aren't you the cutest thing?" Was all Misty got out before vulpix used flamethrower on her. Vulpix then returned to her nap. "Very cute…" And then she collapsed

"Thanks for testing the waters Misty." Dust remarked with a small smirk. Dexter chirped again.

"Vulpix use powerful flame attacks."

"Duh!" Ash exclaimed and then Brock began to babble. Finally he chocked out that he wanted to become Suzie's student. The others were shocked, but as always lucario, Pikablue, and I were aware of the situation.

"I don't have the time to teach, breeding takes up all my time." Suzie said

"What makes her such a great breeder?" Ash asked and then Brock gave Ash an earful of Suzie's accomplishments. Misty then asked if vulpix had won anything. Thankfully Ash derailed Brock's new triad. We then all sat down for some snacks and drinks.

"Your pikachu have a beautiful shiny coat." Suzie remarked, looking at pikachu. Of course pikablue was outraged that he was being left out.

"Pikablue, there's no need for that." I remarked as pikablue went on a rant about all the things he had been through and how it wasn't his fault if his fur got scuffed up because of it.

"You can understand him?" Suzie asked and then I explained that I am a pokemorph and thus able to understand the rants of my pesky pikachu. Suzie then remarked on pikablue's bright, shiny eyes. That quieted him down and then she told us how she had started out with an interest in pokémon nutrition. Vulpix then joined us and pikachu offered her some of Brock's pokéfood.

"This is great!" She exclaimed and Suzie told us that vulpix had never eaten anything she hadn't prepared herself before. But now vulpix was chowing down on Brock's pokéfood like there was no tomorrow. Brock stood up straight and tried to bow low, but banged his head on the table.

"I'm not worthy." He groaned and then we began to talk about Team Rocket's place. They were tacky, an eye sore, and all around awful. But still, people seemed to like the flashy bit of it, even if their pokémon didn't. Misty then got a mental image of pikachu and pikablue in dresses.

"WE ARE GUYS DANG IT!" Pikablue cried in outrage. I guess some of my psychic energy is rubbing off on pikablue… or he just knows Misty that well. Misty and Ash then got into a fight over weather the outside was important. They both knew the inside was important, but Ash said the outside wasn't that important and Misty said it was. Personally, I think Ash is right. Dust just sat there, looking in her drink. Normally she'd be right in the middle of the fight. Things are bad.

"Shouldn't you be stopping them?" Suzie asked.

"That's like trying to stop the tide." Brock answered and then Ash gave Misty the idea of sending psyduck to Rocket's salon. And so the battle lines were drawn, Ash would stay here at Suzie's salon and have Suzie work on pikachu while Misty would take psyduck and go to Team Rocket' salon. Whoever came back cuter would be the winner.

[Let the battle begin!] Lucario exclaimed.

DUST POV:

Well the new clothes were an obvious Team Rocket plot, and I didn't just know that because I've seen this episode before back home. It took me a few minutes to realize this but once I did, it was obvious, I didn't bother pointing it out to Misty when she left, I thought she'd figure it out.

"Hey, why didn't you go with Misty? Weren't you interested in those clothes?" David asked, as Suzie started massaging the electric sacs on Pikachu's cheeks.

"No way," I screwed up my face. "I was just remembering this episode, it took a few minutes, that's all,"

"Oooooh, thank goodness," David sighed relieved. I rolled my eyes, crossed my arms, and turned back to the presentation that Suzie was showing Ash how to do.

After a few minutes of watching, Midnight started sniffing the air and that's when something ran into my leg, Misty's Psyduck. He and David had a short conversation. "What's happening?" I asked.

"Misty's in trouble, team rocket," David told our group. We all ran towards the salon we knew Misty had went to and burst into the room. A small smile crossed my face when I saw Misty's new look. "Dummies," Misty muttered. Ash demanded that they let her go but they refused unless they had Pikachu.

"Don't they ever think of anything else?" I asked, getting annoyed. They followed us _everywhere!_

"No. And they probably never will," David agreed.

I sent out Midnight, Ash sent out Pikachu, Brock sent Geodude while David went to untie Misty. Midnight used tackle on ekans and then Geodude used seismic toss while Koffing used sludge, getting it into the pokémon's eyes. I winched, imagine having that fluid in your eyes.

Team Rocket tried to attack but Vulpix stepped into the ring and used a powerful fire spin attack. "Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!" they wailed as they disappeared into the sky like always.

"Do they always have to say that?" I grumbled. I'd be doing more screaming than trying to say something if they happened to me all the time.

Sometime later, we all stood after the battle in front of Suzie holding Vulpix, Misty had refused to remove the face paint. "Thanks to all of you," Suzie thanked us. "I believe in what I'm doing again. You helped my regain confidence in my beliefs." Suzie turned to Brock. "Brock, I was very impressed with the way you handled your pokémon in a crises like that. I have a lot more to learn about breeding pokémon, even if I do have a championship. I'm still a student, not a teacher. Looks like you and I both have journeys ahead of us. I'd be grateful if you took care of vulpix for me. You're the first person other than me that vulpix has been friendly with. Right now, I believe that you could do a better job raising vulpix then I could,"

"Thanks, I don't know what to say," Brock said, clearly stunned that the woman would give him such a gift. I gave a small but proud smile; it only grew when I caught another look at Misty. Someone should really tell her to take it off.

I looked at the sun as we continued onto our adventure, we left our new friend waving goodbye and I put on a smile so the others wouldn't worry about me. I didn't want to become a burden any more than I already was. Despite David's efforts, I've seen the way he's been looking at me recently. How could I not? With all the glances he keeps giving me, as if I'm a fragile doll who'll break with a single touch… but maybe, that's exactly what I am. Though the sun was warm, it felt as though an icy shadow had fallen over my heart. Is this normal? Or is something really and truly wrong? I'm going to have to ask David. Sometime.


	29. The Punchy Pokemon

The Punchy Pokémon:

DUST POV:

I knew we were close to a town, and I couldn't wait so I could sit down and relax. We've been walking for hours and my feet were killing me. That was when Ash noticed something. It was a hitmonchan on the path.

"Alright, I'm gonna catch it!" Ash said excited.

"Just remember to weaken it first," I said, dropping my bag and collapsing to rest while he went to catch it.

"Pikachu, if you can defeat hitmonchan, you'll be a world champion pokémon!" Ash exclaimed, obviously excited. Pikachu, however, looked terrified at the much stronger creature. Ash decided to teach Pikachu how to do a 'secret' punch.

"When did Ash become a boxing expert?" Misty questioned.

"Got me," Brock shrugged.

A minute later, "Hitmonchan, I challenge you!" Ash shouted, getting the pokémon's attention. I chuckled for two reasons. One, Pikachu was about to lose this round, and two, Pikachu was wearing tiny little boxing gloves. Pikachu threw a punch and hit hitmonchan in the jaw. The pokémon rubbed his jaw and Pikachu looked at it fearfully.

A man quickly rushed over from nearby, "Hitmonchan, you shouldn't let your guard down!" the man coached; maybe he was the pokémon's trainer. "Now knock out that pokémon!" the man instructed. Hitmonchan easily won, leaving Pikachu a bit bruised and battered but he would be alright. Of course, Ash was disappointed that he wasn't a wild hitmonchan, meaning he couldn't capture the fighting type like he'd planned on doing.

A young girl ran out from behind the nearby trees. "Dad!" the little girl begged. "Please come home, won't you give up on being a trainer?"

"Rebecca, I won't quit until I become a P1 grand pix champion," the man declared, turning to us. "I'll be at my gym," he announced, quickly leaving.

Rebecca explained to us that her father was determined to win and had pretty much abandoned his family. "That's not right," I said quietly. You didn't get to choose your family but you did have to live with them. Family was supposed to be there for you when you needed them, and he abandoned them to win some championship?

"Have no fear, Rebecca," Brock announced. I guess he got a flashback about how his own father had left his mother with a gang of kids to watch. "My geodude and Ash's primeape will defeat Anthony and his Hitmonchan,"

"So I guess that means we're not getting a hot meal, cold air condition, or a soft bed," I sighed, climbing to my feet.

At the grand pix, the battles were starting. I stood in the crowd with David, Misty, and our pokémon. The first battle was between a Machop and Ash's primeape. Ash begged for his pokémon to battle but Primeape refused to listen or even move. That was when Machop used seismic toss and threw him out of the ring.

Ash tried to catch him but missed. "Are you okay?" Ash asked worried but Primeape just gave him a heartfelt look of gratitude before jumping back into the ring. Primeape decided to listen to Ash this time and easily defeated the Machop with a scratch attack and mega kick.

The next match happened between a Hitmonlee and Brock's Geodude. Brock got distracted by talking to Rebecca who stood in front of us so I could hear what they were saying. "Don't worry, Rebecca, everything is under control," Brock said, trying to comfort the young girl.

"Brock, look out!" Rebecca cried. I looked up in time to see Brock get hit on the head by his own pokémon. Poor Brock.

David's POV

Amateurs. I had had half a mind to enter the P1 grand prix, but decided against it. So now I was sitting in the stands board and for some reason anxious. I guess it's because there hasn't been much activity at all lately. I haven't seen Derek in a long time, the Heartless and Nobodies were no where to be found, Dust was depressed as well as still not using practicing with her keyblade, and I'm left holding the bag.

[I'm soooo board.] Lucario complained. Like trainer like pokémon I suppose.

"Even having to put up with a mob of Wizards would be better than this." Pikablue agreed. I guess he still hasn't gotten over that time a Wizard drained him for its thundaga spell.

[Maybe we could go and kick Team Rocket's butt before they cause too much more trouble.] Lucario suggested, but we decided against it. Just then Brock threw in the towel, signaling his forfeit. Then I felt a disturbance in the Force and looked around and who should I see but Derek. Maybe this means the dry spell is over? Anything for a little excitement. He seemed to be just as board as I was. Eventually, it was down to the last semi final battle. Hitmonlee vs. hitmonchan, the two hitmon pokémon of Kanto fame.

"We might finally see something worthwhile." I remarked as the two fought. Hitmonlee was kicking up a storm, but no matter how fast he was, hitmonchan was dodging every one of them. So meowth stepped in and cheated with some super stick glue. Hitmonchan got hammered and Anthony was just about to throw in the towel when Rebecca jumped into the ring. She was going to take the hit for hitmonchan! So, like any decent father, Anthony got in front of her and took the blow. He wasn't hurt too bad and threw in the towel.

"Well, now that they're back together as family, all Ash and primeape has to do is kick hitmonlee's butt." Dust commented and then Team Rocket gave away their identity to those of our group who hadn't figured it out yet. They tried to do the motto, but James was so exhausted and overheated that he couldn't.

"I should just kick you out here and now." I grumbled, but left them alone. At first primeape was absorbing all of hitmonlee's kicks, but Ash told him to go on the offensive and he managed to get inside hitmonlee's kicks and started to rain down punches. Meanwhile, meowth was up to more of his dirty tricks. I placed one hand on the ring, so if meowth did activate his zap trap I would just absorb it all with my volt absorb ability. Then primeape could dodge the following blast. But pikachu had his own ideas.

[Why didn't the ring go up in smoke?] Lucario wondered, but all he had to do is look with his aura sense to see pikachu under the ring. He had managed to disarm the bomb. With a final seismic toss, primeape took down hitmonlee and won the prix. Then pikachu reactivated the bomb, set it on a timer, and gave it to meowth. Sneaky little monster.

"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!"

Ash decided primeape with Anthony so he could get stronger.

"I'll always be grateful and proud that I knew a real P1 champion." Ash told primeape and primeape looked at Ash with watery eyes. We continued down the road, but not for long. We were ambushed! Nobodies and Heartless! There were seven Berserker Nobodies, five Dragoons, two Assassins, three Samurai, and a mob of Dusks and Creepers. On the Heartless side of the equation, there were nine Invisible, three Angle Stars, one Hot Rod, a dozen Large Bodies, eight Fat Bandits, one Ground shaker, and a whole slew of Neo Shadows and Shadows.

"I couldn't help but notice how pathetically board you looked back at the P1." Came Derek's voice from an unseen location.

"Well you lot _have_ been awfully quiet lately. What are you up to?" I asked

"Like I'm gonna go into a monologue about our plans. Do I look like a stereotypical villain?" He asked in a mock hurt tone.

"If you're not going to tell us anything then just go away." Dust grumbled

"Whoa, someone's in a bad mood. Okay, I guess I can tell you a little something. Just to keep things interesting. My master was very interested to learn of the events of New Island. He said he might just have a use for you Dust. Or rather, your brainwashed body during the full Moon." With that I felt Derek's presence vanish. Dust was not happy about this so I put up a sound shield around her to preserve Ash, Misty, and Brock's virgin ears. It was easy to see that Derek was trying to get Dust mad. And I also knew why. When she burns herself out, her depression will just be worse. Then the enemies attacked.

[Let's party!] Lucario cheered and since Dust was no where near ready to take on a force of this size and strength, it was just pikablue, lucario, and I. I couldn't have been happier.

"LET'S DO IT!" And we charged into battle. So much for being bored.

**I know things have been slow since the Mewtwo strikes back movie, but things are about to change! Stay tuned and please review! Remember, 30 reviews and MSkitty and I will do something special.**


	30. Dark Spark

Chapter 30: Dark Spark

The world of pokémon

**It's time for an episode near and dear to my heart… not particularly, but I still like it. I don't think there are any announcements besides a reminder that at 30 reviews MSkitty and I will put together a special chapter. As I am writing this it's Labor Day, so I wish everyone a most likely late happy Labor Day!**

David's POV

I wasn't particularly happy to be back in Gringy city, what with all the smog and whatnot, but I might be able to catch a grimer this time around. Unfortunately, the city's state seemed to reflect Dust's mood. I'm at my wits end with her, I've tried everything! Even ice cream has failed! Maybe it's time to start thinking about more desperate measures.

[This place reeks! I can hardly breathe!] Lucario complained while trying to cover his nose with his arm.

"Looks like Pikachu has fallen ill again." Pikablue remarked as pikachu collapsed with a fever.

"Pikachu!" Ash exclaimed and then got shocked when he touched the electric type. After that, Ash pulled out his old rubber gloves that his Mom gave him and we rushed to find the nearest pokémon center.

"Do you think he got sick from all the smog in the air?" Midnight wondered and we came to the pokémon center. Of course, I could feel meowth's beady eyes watching us. But there's not a whole lot I felt like doing about it. Ash ran to the counter and began to ring the bell and it seemed that we had woken Nurse Joy. Ash presented pikachu to her and she said he had a cold.

"This is no cold!" Ash protested, "Your sisters and cousins were a lot more helpful!" Nurse Joy just yawned again. I had almost forgotten, this Nurse Joy was the black sheep of the family. Nurse Joy then explained that sparking cheeks are an early sign of colds. She said that if pikachu stayed here overnight, he'd be fine in the morning.

"I've had my fair share of colds; I know that this isn't a cold!" Pikablue exclaimed indignantly

"Is it possible that you're the oddball of the family?" Ash asked

"Oh no, it's all my other relatives that are odd." Nurse Joy told us and we all just looked at her kind of funny.

"Looks like we're not going to get any help here." Dust sighed, but upon hearing this, Nurse Joy agreed to take pikachu in for a look over. Ash gave her his gloves and at that moment the lights went out. Of course, that meant that all the pokémon in the ICU were in big trouble. We went to see if we could do anything about the blackout and pikachu wanted to come too, but he was in no condition to do so. For whatever reason, in this dimension, the pokémon center here didn't have a back up generator. That means I have a shot at getting myself a grimer! After we restore the power, of course.

The first stop on our list was Officer Jenny. She tried calling the power plant, but there was no response. So she pointed us in the direction of the power plant and before we could take off, pikachu stumbled out of the bushes.

"Pikapi… I wanna… help." Pikachu panted

"Pikachu, you should be back at the pokémon center." Ash semi scolded

"Wouldn't want you getting worse than you already are." Midnight added and Misty guessed that pikachu was afraid that we'd leave and never come back.

"Idiot, if you weren't so sick, I'd knock some sense into that thick head of yours." Pikablue grumbled, but Ash relented and agreed pikachu could come.

"But you have to remember to take it easy." Ash reminded him, before pikachu jumped into Ash's arms and accidentally shocked him. Eventually, we made it to the power plant.

"Stay sharp guys. In a place like this there are bound to be at least a few Heartless roaming about." I cautioned and sent out my typhlosion as a precaution. In typical Ash fashion, he tried to check typhlosion in the pokédex, but there was no data on him. We went in to find a dark and gloomy building with nary a soul. There were loads of weak Shadows lurking about just around the front desk. I tried to encourage Dust to take them out, but I ended up doing it myself.

"Looks like the control room is that way." Misty said, pointing down the hall after looking at a map. Then a strange scent came drifting by. It wasn't the grimer. I hope it isn't a boss Heartless. While walking down the halls we came across quite a few Yellow Operas and even the odd Wizard, but they were very low level. After about five minutes of walking, Misty sensed the magnemite that had been stalking pikachu.

"But this place is deserted." Ash pointed out, "Asides from the Heartless and David's been taking care of them."

"But I know I heard something back there." Misty whimpered

"I didn't notice anything." Dust remarked

"It's Okay if you're a total chicken Misty; the rest of us can take it from here." Ash waved her off

"I'm not a chicken you little twerp! THERE WAS SOMETHING BACK THERE WIETHER YOU BELIEVE ME OR NOT!" Misty roared and then the magnemite floated down behind Ash. Everyone saw the outline, except Ash. But he did notice the scared looks on everyone's faces. Well, except from mine and my pokémon. We were too busy trying to hold in our snickers. Ash turned around, but there wasn't anything there.

"All right, if anybody's there, you can come on out! And if you're a ghost or a monster… you can stay where you are. We won't bother you." After Ash had finished his speech, lucario had to stomp on my foot to keep me from bursting out laughing.

"And you call me chicken?!" Misty screamed, "You're a total coward!"

"Maybe not a total coward." Ash protested weakly and then something shook the ground. The smell from before came back and it was stronger than ever; another bone rattling step and then a loud roar. Everyone rushed behind me; I really have to get Dust to use her keyblade. Then out of the shadows came a Heartless I had only ever read about: a Hunter of the Dark. I knew this Heartless was one of the most powerful there are and just by the smell I could tell this one was no exception.

"What is that thing?!" Dust shrieked.

"GET BACK NOW!" I shoved them all away from me just before the barrier rose. Everyone was safe, except me. Then the monster lunged at me and I raised my keyblade, Ultima Weapon, to defend myself. But suddenly my vision was clouded by Darkness. When I could see again I was no longer in the power plant. I could sense Darkness everywhere. Was I in the Realm of Darkness? Then the Heartless charged at me and I shot off a blizzaga spell But the Hunter of the Dark managed to jump over the spell and raked me with its claws. Then it vanished into the dark haze that surrounded us.

"_Ye of the keyblade…" _I knew that voice! It was the same one from my Dive Dream! But what did that mean? I then spotted the monster's glowing red eyes. It lunged, but I used reflega and blocked the attack while hitting it offensively. I then tried to use a meteor spell, but the thing was too fast and got away.

"_Power of Light…"_Again? I wonder what it's trying to tell me. There are those eyes again. It feels like they're drilling into my soul. It went to attack again, but I used guard and then smashed it with an Ars Arcanum. It did about 1/3 of the damage I expected. Once again the Hunter of the Dark fled into the haze

"_Power of Darkness…"_I guess I'll just have to wait and find out what it's trying to tell me. The Heartless blitzed me again, but this time I let loose with an ice raid before it could slink back into the haze.

"_Both for the one keyblade…" _Is it taking about the χ-blade? Crap, the Heartless pounced and got me. Those claws HURT! I cast a quick cure on myself and got in a decent hit. Is that thing going to continue to play games with me?!

"…_Master of the two. Owner of the one…"_ What? Now I'm confused; a master of both Light _and_Darkness? I know from what Dust told me that I could _use_ both Light and Darkness, but mastering it? That's a whole different story. And what is the 'one'? I can't focus properly. Between the Hunter of the Dark and this I'm getting more and more confused. The monster rushed me yet again and I fended it off with a ragnarok attack.

"…_Teacher of the few. Learner of them all…"_OK… you just lost me. I used a supernova to blast back the Hunter of the Dark. I want to know more. Then the eyes vanished.

"_In time you will know all and understand it. And you will know nothing and understand that as well. Remember, you are the one who holds the keys to both doors and to all the doors of eternity. Teach them well; Dimension Traveler." _I felt the presence that came with the voice withdraw and then the eyes became visible again. The Hunter of the Dark roared and then the haze was dispelled. I bolted at the beast but was caught by its tail. I recovered in mid-air and shot off a holy. That did a healthy bit of damage and now the Hunter of the Dark was down to 10 full bars of HP out of the original 12. Next I let loose with a thundaga and then was raked by the Heartless' claws. It's a good thing I put my Drive cloths on today.

"Let's go!" I shouted and switched into blaze form. My clothes were completely red now with a flame insignia on the front. My keyblade was also on fire now. I now had increased defenses and a slightly higher attack as well as being slightly faster. I kicked things off with a fire raid and then dodged another swipe of the tail to pull off a firaga burst. I then jumped up and attacked with a standard aerial combo. It then jumped and caught me in a flurry of claws. I retaliated with a mega flare and immediately followed up with another holy. The Hunter of the Dark roared again and dispelled something. It now had only 5 bars. It charged at me and I used dodge roll to get out of the way, but there was an unexpected shockwave that caught me. I threw up a curaga and then colors started to swirl around me. The Heartless became a missile and burst from the colors at random places. I used dodge roll a lot but still got hit from time to time. Eventually it fell from above and I got hit with the shockwave. I went to attack it with a basic combo, but it moved and left disorienting after-images. I was getting hammered by it! So I used reflega and that made it stop and it tried to swipe at me with its claws but I blocked it with my keyblade, but it then slammed me with its tail. That forced me out of my Drive form. But I had enough juice left to pull off my spark from. So I switched to that. My clothes became an electric yellow with a thunderbolt insignia on the front. My keyblade became charged with electricity and my speed went through the roof and my magic attack gained a boost.

*ROAR* My poor ears. But now that I was in my spark form, it couldn't hope to get a clean hit in. I used my speed to slash at the Hunter of the Dark several times and then went into a chain of thundagas. I then used thunder raid and rushed forward and caught my keyblade to follow up with another flurry of combos. The Hunter of the Dark tried to go into another after-image attack, but I put a stop to that with an Ars Arcanum+ and with my charged keyblade he was now down to his last HP bar. I cast a quick Curaga to heal the minor wounds I had and to replenish my HP. The Hunter of the Dark tried to attack me at the same time, but thanks to my leaf bracer ability it was deflected. While it was recovering I pulled off another holy and with a final combo that finished with my explosion ability it was finished. That wasn't too bad. The Heartless dissolved into Darkness and then my vision was clouded again and when I could see again I saw that I had returned to the power plant.

"Pikachupik!" Pikablue cried and tackled me, but there's still work to be done. Will I ever catch a break?

DUST POV:

I don't think I would ever get used to this, facing these things all the time. But David did it, and it made me wonder if I would ever be able to do that, just go into battle like that. Would I ever even have the courage, let along the strength, to defeat them and save innocent people from their destruction? I wasn't sure. It…it just scared me, like a nightmare you never wake up from. I felt so bad, how I was just frozen up and yet David jumped in without a second thought.

Right now, the gang and I were currently walking down the hall and my heart was still thundering in my chest. Misty was looking at a map as they walked. I needed to forget about the attack right now, I had other things to worry about now that it was over. We had to save the pokemon.

Then I felt as if I was being watched, or there was something there. What it was, I didn't know. I glanced over my shoulder, and a shadow moved behind me. I shrieked surprised and jumped back, getting the others attention.

_Magnemite, a Magnet Pokémon. Its means of floating through the air are not understood. This very mysterious Pokémon is of the Electric type._

Ash, being the guy he was, of course, decided he was going to capture it. However, it was not that much sooner, that we realized Magnemite was, for some reason, in love with Pikachu, when he wouldn't leave him alone. I had a good laugh about that.

"Cut it out!" Ash shouted when Magnemite wouldn't stop trying to cuddle with Pikachu, something the mouse pokemon obviously didn't like and Magnemite slowly backed away, but it wasn't because of Ash. A ghastly odor filled the hallway, I covered my nose and mouth with my hand, feeling my eyes sting.

I flinched as I heard a vent on the wall fall off and hit the ground with a clang. Several large pokemon known as Grimer's, appeared before us. It was Brock who told us not to insult the smell, or else it would insult their proud. That was hard, but I kept my mouth shut.

"Oh, well…it's a very…unique smell," Ash tried to say what he felt without it being an insult to the grimers.

"Unique? It stinks," Misty said, holding her nose close. I hit my forehead with the palm of my hand. David was shaking his head behind me, arms crossed, eyes closed.

The leader of the grimers, a pokemon called Muk, raised from behind them, obviously angered. Muk seemed to make a command of some kind, causing all the grimers to attack. I spun and ran, followed by Ash, Misty, David, Brock, Pikachu, Midnight, and Pikablue. We ran around the corner but ran into two plant workers who quickly led them to hide in the control room.

"The grimers are clogging the sea intake," one of the men explained. "So the power won't come on," there was a bang on the door as the grimers ran into it, trying to break it down. David tried to get it to stay up but the grimers broke it open before he could do much.

Midnight stayed in front of me, growing, to try and protect me from the grimers. Even Midnight was braver than me! I couldn't even handle the whole keyblade thing. Pikachu used a thundershock but only managed to knock a few out. David managed to knock half of the rest of them out in one attack.

However, _the _Magnemite, the one with the crush on Pikachu, came out of the grate on the wall above us, followed by several Magnemite and Magneton, its evolved form. Their combined electric attack was enough to make the grimers run away, as well as the grimers blocking the water flow to the plant, and restoring the power. Mission accomplished, and now the pokemon at the poke-center was safe. Well, almost. The Muk was still an obstacle.

Pikachu and Pikablue used thundershock, combined with the magnemite obsessed with Pikachu, was able to knock Muk unconscious. Not much of a surprise, but Ash quickly used his pokeball and caught it. However, there was a horrible realization. Muk's smell was so strong; you could smell it straight through the pokeball.

I finally sucked in a large breath of air as we made it outside. The air seemed so much nicer, even with the left over pollution mucking around. The better news was Pikachu wasn't as sick anymore and already looked better.

"When an electric mouse builds up too much electricity, its body becomes magnetized and it seems like a cold," one of the factory workers explained.

It turns out the only reason Magnemite had a crush on Pikachu was because Pikachu was magnetized. But because he wasn't anymore, Magnemite had no interest. Talk about a picky player. But of course, Team Rocket had to show up in a gyarados submarine to capture Pikachu, assuming Pikachu was still magnetized. But of course, they didn't know that and instead, got all the magnemite and Magneton all over town. The large weight was enough to cause them to sink and we left.

Before we left the city, we gave some advice to the townspeople about cleaning up the air and water. Maybe one day, we'll come back when the city's back up to its former glory, to see how it should have looked the entire time. And maybe next time, we won't have to worry about all the muk's and grimer's attacking.

That night David and I were the last ones up. The fire was still crackling merrily under David's care. The others had eaten dinner and crawled into their sleeping bags.

"How do you do it?" I asked quietly

"Do what?" David replied

"Jump right into a fight without even a thought for your own safety. I can't even look a shadow in the eye, never mind a real monster like that Hunter of the Dark thing." I answered, feeling disgusted with myself. To my surprise David chuckled a bit.

"I don't know how much of that is bravery. Fighting is in every Pokémorph's blood. We just love to fight. There are very few moments in our history where no one is fighting." David responded, "But don't misunderstand me, most of that fighting was non-malevolent. It was just for fun or to prove something."

"I think you're not giving yourself enough credit. Or else you're semi-suicidal." I quipped. At this David laughed and I cocked my eyebrow.

"Mewtwo told me I was suicidal after nearly dying for, as he put it, 'a complete stranger'." He told me by way of explanation. I didn't feel the need to ask for details. I didn't doubt that he had done that. It was just the kind of person David was. I summoned my keyblade and looked at it.

"You're brave and kind and any other good character trait you can think of. I'm just a cowardly, inhuman freak." I lamented

"Bravery isn't the absence of fear, but the ability to look it in the eye and still move forward. As to you being a 'inhuman freak', I've told you before that you are a human, your DNA just comes from farther down the time stream. And being a freak? The worst you do is become a Moon Elf once a month," I shot him a dirty look, "I actually become four very different things, an avian, a canine, a lagomorph, and a simian. Each has their own instincts and desires and drives."

"Drives? Do you mean each of them has…_that_… drive?" I nearly whispered

"You mean the drive to reproduce? Yep."

"Really?! Brock can't keep his hands to himself! You have four times the drive of any human; it's amazing that you don't…" My brain finally caught up with my mouth and I felt myself flush red.

"That I don't try and have my way with everything and anything female, or something to that affect?" There are probably tomatoes that would be jealous of how red I had just become. "I won't lie to you. It's not always easy, keeping myself under control. But I have my religion and a good woman whom I love and who loves me in return. That helps a lot. Being a Pokémorph can, and usually is, complicated."

"That's just another thing that you're a lot better at than me." I said

"I assume you had a heightened drive during your full moon phase. Yet you didn't act on it. That's reason enough to be proud of yourself."

"Doesn't change the fact that the keyblade would be better off with someone, anyone, else." I muttered

"The keyblade chooses its master and it chose _you_. Not only that but you were chosen to have domain over Darkness by the Darkness itself. _That_ is pretty impressive." I felt that the conversation had ended and got into my sleeping bag, but my mind was still whirring. I may have been chosen by the Darkness, but I'm still afraid of it. Am I just a puppet who was lucky enough to get a keyblade? Is that the reason the Darkness chose me? And I can't help but wondering; who's really in control, me or the Darkness?


	31. Diglett's

Dig those Diglett's:

DUST POV:

A few days had passed since my late night conversation with David and me and the others were currently walking through a pathway through the mountains, trying to figure out how to get to Fuschia City and for once, I don't think it was Ash's fault.

"Fuchsia City should be right over the mountain," Brock said. The problem was they were surrounded by mountains.

"Do you have any idea which direction we're supposed to go in?" I asked David, crossing my arms over my chest.

"We'll find our way in the end," David said, trying to sound all mysterious and making me want to hit my head against a really big rock. Before I could consider actually doing it though, there was a large explosion somewhere nearby that almost made me lose my footing but I caught myself in time.

"What was that?" Ash voiced our unasked question. Everyone started running from the direction the explosion came from. Apparently, a large rock like boulder fell, making a hole in the ground where a bunch of large trucks were falling and crashing into the ground.

"Oh no," I gasped. That was horrible.

"No, no, I think they're okay," David comforted me.

One of the construction workers climbed out of his truck, "I can't take this anymore!" he cried and he explained to us about their little diglett problem, the diglett's were randomly popping up and down in the ground.

"They're so cute," Misty commented. One look at the worker's face, made me know that was the wrong thing to say.

The worker yelled at Misty, "The Diglett's are preventing us from building a dam!" Ash, of course, being Ash, pulled out his pokedex.

_People can recognize Diglett's movement from the upturned earth._

"I don't see any upturned earth," Ash huffed.

"Well there's got to be some," I stated. The construction worker explained to us how the ground was covered with concrete, but if they looked closely, they can see the movement.

"It looks like a mini-earthquake," Misty said as she saw something moving underneath the earth nearby.

"And because of it, we may never be able to achieve our dream of building, the 'great giva dam'." I looked up at that. Not being able to have your dream? That was such a disappointment for all those who dream, especially those who dream big.

Before anyone could say anything, there was an explosion nearby that caused a large boulder to fall from the nearby wall. "Is that blasting part of building the dam?" Brock asked.

"Yeah," the worker nodded. "But we can't get supplies through because of the diglett. We came up with a special division so we can come up with strategies to get rid of the diglett," he explained. "We're looking for any pokémon trainers to help. We're even offering a reward of a six night seven day stay at the skyva hot springs resort to anyone who can get rid of them,"

"Hot spring?" I asked brightly. It had to be better than wondering in the woods and getting lost because we made the mistake of listening to Ash again.

"Well we're pokémon trainers," Ash said.

However, it was soon revealed that Gary, the childhood rival of Ash, had already volunteered, bringing with him massive trucks carrying other pokémon trainers. "It must be a coincidence that you're here, _Ashy-boy," _Gary smirked as he saw our group. "Since only the best trainer such as myself, were invited,"

"Ash is much better than you," I snapped, putting my hands on my hips. Maybe Gary could probably beat Ash in battle, but it wasn't battle that proved how good the trainer was but how far the pokémon themselves are willing to go for their trainer. And Ash was the best at understanding pokémon. How many new trainers do you know would protect their pokémon from a heard of thirty or more spearrows and still live to tell about it?

David's POV

[You guys don't think I'm stupid enough to send you against the diglett, do you?] I questioned my pokémon. When a chorus of 'duhs' greeted me I face palmed.

"What's wrong?" Dust inquired

"All my pokémon are smart-alecky know-it-alls." I grumbled and Dust decided to leave it alone.

[Well, here's hoping we don't find any Driller Moles in among the diglett.] Lucario quipped

"Don't jinx it!" Pikablue protested, but knowing our luck it was probably already too late.

"Dust, you might want to get your keyblade ready." I suggested and she shot me a withering look.

"Why, pray tell, would I want to do that?" She asked

"Because there might be Driller Moles in the area," I answered and I think she turned a bit pale. Driller Moles are usually higher level Heartless, it's true, but that's no reason to chicken out.

Meanwhile, Gary was making something of a fool out of himself while teasing Ash. You know, I like Gary… after he matures. Pre getting-his-butt-handed-to-him-by-Ash Gary is Rude, crude, and downright annoying. And I haven't even mentioned that fan club of his.

"Are those pokémon?" Ash asked and Brock had to hit him while telling him not to be so dumb.

"I think I should feel insulted, but somehow I'm not." Dust said

"It's called the 'Ash effect'." I commented and then Brock tried to hit on Gary's fan club. They called him 'sir'.

"That's just as funny as I remember it." Pikablue sighed after he had finished laughing. Brock tried to collect a phone number, address, e-mail, or all of the above when the foreman's fit got us all back on track. So we gathered to listen to what the foreman had to say.

"You, with the Pikachu on your head, listen with your ears and not your mouth."

"The least he could do is yell at me by name." Ash grumbled

"You worry about the strangest things Ash." Dust commented and then Ash moaned that he was the loser from pallet.

"I don't think you're a loser." Midnight said in an attempt to cheer Ash up, but it wasn't working. I then tuned out the foreman in favor of listening to Team Rocket babbling on about 'the principle of forced evolution'. I concur with koffing's and ekans' statements of 'uh-oh'.

"Here you see diglett, the greatest parasitic bug pokémon of the century!" The foreman barked and Gary then set the foreman straight on diglett's classification and status. But the foreman countered that there is strength in numbers. Then we watched as the diglett trashed on of the buses.

"I don't think this will end well." Dust remarked and I already knew it wouldn't turn out well. Gary threw his pokeball, but the pokémon went right back in and the diglett returned the pokeball to Gary. Second verse same as the first.

"WHAT IS GOING ON?!" Gary shouted, but I wasn't going to tell him. Then everyone else joined in except those in our group.

"At least they're polite." Misty deadpanned

"And unstoppable," Brock added and then Ash tried to call out squirtle.

"STOP!" Pikachu shouted and finally Gary deduced that the pokémon didn't want to battle the diglett. Then we were entertained by the foreman playing whack-a-mole without any success. Gary then gave us the fun fact that diglett can pull their heads in at the speed of light.

"That's fast." Commented an awestruck Dust and Gary announced that he was leaving. Everyone else followed suit and eventually we were the last ones there… after lucario and I had helped to pull the bus out of the ground.

That night we were relaxing in the hot springs. Misty remarked that something didn't feel right and she told us she was wondering why the pokémon didn't come out of their pokeballs. Ash turned to Pikachu to discover the answer, but then we spotted some diglett. Ash and the others decided to get some cloths on, but I switched to my Pikachu from and followed Pikachu, Pikablue, and lucario; who were following the diglett. The foreman was still playing his game of whack-a-mole.

"Where are they going with those seedlings?" Lucario wondered and eventually the others caught up with us. Then we listened to the 'digle-de, digle-de, trio trio trio' symphony as we watched the ground types planting trees and so forth.

[Thus you discover why none of the pokémon would battle.] I quipped in a very self-satisfied tone that caused Dust to stomp on me.

"If you knew the whole time then why did you keep us in the dark?!" She screeched at me. But I felt the pounding was worth it. Then the foreman showed up and he realized what would happen if the dam was completed. The whole forest would flood. Then Team Rocket popped up.

"You guys want something?" Pikablue asked and Ash tried to tell them that we weren't in the mood. Of course they wanted to show off their newly evolved pokémon, so it didn't matter to them if we were in the mood. Team Rocket then sent out their pokémon with a lot of fireworks and hoopla.

"Their pokémon evolved?! I thought that they weren't good enough trainers to get their pokémon to evolve!" Dust exclaimed and then Ash called out his three starter pokémon, but Team Rocket's pokémon went underground. That wasn't the smartest idea, as the diglett and dugtrio put a stop to the two poison types. Then the ground type pokémon created a tsunami of earth and slammed Team Rocket into the dam. With that, everything was put to rights and the fuchsia gym was right around the mountain. Time for the next gym badge!


	32. Here Comes the Ninja's

Ninja tricks

The world of Pokémon

**We are back in action! This chapter has to do with the ninja pokémon trainers of the Fuchsia gym. Remember 30 reviews!**

David's POV

Currently we were searching for the Fuchsia gym without much luck. I know it was around here somewhere.

"Do you know where the gym is?" Dust asked

"I know it's around here somewhere, but beyond that I'm just as lost as the rest of you." I responded as Misty lamented her psyduck.

"Hey Brock, how about a trade? That vulpix for my psyduck!" Musty offered, but was quickly shot down. We moved on and eventually found a plank that was our only way across a canyon. I simply jumped over the gap with pikablue on my shoulder and lucario came after me.

"Curse you and your jumping abilities." I heard Dust grumble in what she considered 'under her breath'. It was then we spotted the Fuchsia gym. Just as I remembered, it looked like it had come right out of feudal Japan. We went inside and Misty soon discovered a secret door. We followed her and then a venonat came around the corner. Ash checked his pokedex and made it clear he wanted to catch it. So venonat decided to take his leave and of course, we followed.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same." Pikablue sighed as Ash got the shock treatment from a concealed voltorb.

"Pikachu, why did you do that to me?" Ash moaned in anguish

"I didn't do anything!" Pikachu protested

"Well if you didn't do it, then who..?" Ash was cut off by Brock spotting the hidden voltorb. Ash checked his pokedex and the others all got really nervous at the words 'self-destruct'. Ash complained that this place kept getting weirder and as the others weren't as explosive proof as me and my pokémon are, we decided to leave the voltorb in peace. We eventually found venonat again on the upper level. Ash rushed head first after venonat and into a glass wall.

"You're going to have to learn to be more careful if you want to survive in the lair of a ninja." I chastised Ash.

"NINJA?!" The others shouted and decided to leave, only for Ash to ram into a second glass wall that blocked off the way we came.

"Can't you break these walls?" Misty asked me

"I could, but I don't feel like it." I said and was on the receiving end of two mistresses of the evil eye. I didn't even break a sweat. Ash then tried to find a way out, only to be almost dumped in the river that ran alongside the gym. After we saved Ash venonat appeared again and Ash charged after him. This lead to Ash almost being impaled by some shiruken, better known as ninja throwing stars. We found him stuck to the wall and then Aya appeared and introduced herself.

"Isn't that color a little bright for a ninja?" Misty asked, but Aya told her to mind her own business.

"Well I don't think it's very nice to toss throwing stars around like that." Dust scolded and wanted Brock to back her up. She should have known he'd be busy flirting with Aya. After denying him, Aya told us the only way we'd get out was if we beat her in a pokémon battle. In truth, I could have gotten out of here with ease. A good chunk of my training with Darkrai was ninja skills. And even if that wasn't the case, there were several able-bodied trainers here. So I wasn't overly worried about the outcome. This might even teach Ash a lesson.

DUST POV:

They started to battle, Ash with bulbasaur and Aya with Venonat. It was a close battle at times but Bulbasaur pulled out in the end with a leech seed. Of course, a voltorb had to roll into the area.

"None of you are permitted to leave here unless you do battle with me," the leader, Koga said. Right before the battle could begin, the roof fell in. It was, to my no surprise, team rocket, who did the motto. I yawned threw it, they really needed something new. The same thing is just a drag all the time.

Team Rocket were wearing costumes that easily kept poison attacks out. The setback was it was far too hard to move so they took them off. David helped us out here and easily sent them flying.

"LOOKS LIKE TEAM ROCKET'S BLASTING OFF AGAIN!" At least that part never got any less funnier.

Now that that was over, Ash prepared for his battle, using charmander. "This will be one on one," Koga said. "My pokemon will be venomath," Venumoth used stun spore but charmander quickly burned it away before it could work on him.

"Now Charmander, use ember," Ash said. A rapid fire flamethrower burnt venomoth's wings and a fire spin was what caused venomoth to faint. Ash won his soul badge. I wondered briefly if my next challenge badge would be in the next town over?

We left the ninja gym and started on the next part of our journey.


	33. The Poke-Marathon

The Flame Poke-athon

DUST POV

After some travel, we finally made it to the next part of our adventure. Sadly, there wasn't a place I could earn a badge but it was still a pretty cool place, the safari zone. Before we could officially celebrate that we made it, there was a large tremor or earthquake that had me almost falling off my feet, had Midnight, who was quickly filling out and growing up compared to what she was when we first found her, had steadied me.

"It's a herd of tauros," David said as the herd ran nearby.

"That's kinda cool," I admitted while Ash, as always, pulled out his pokédex. _**Tauros, a wild bull pokémon, when whipping itself with its three tails, become a powerful force,"**_

Ash wanted to catch one and I agreed; it would be cool to have a tauros poke-friend. Pikachu pretended to sleep so he wouldn't have to fight, so he picked charmander. However, before he could attack, a puppy fire dog pokémon jumped on top of him.

_**Growlithe, a puppy pokémon of pleasant demeanor and great diligence, it drives enemies away with barks and bites.**_

I really wanted one, it was just so cute! Like a puppy. Ash decided to fight and told Charmander to use flamethrower but growlithe wasn't going without a fight and used one his self, obviously a fire type. Ash decided to be smart about his choices and switched charmander out for squirtle.

Before he could attack, "Hold it!" a girl with young blue hair riding a ponyta said in a thick southern accent. "This is a pokémon reserve, you can't catch any pokémon here," Well that was cool, but oddly dissatisfying. I really wanted a new pokémon, but I guess I could wait for another time.

"My name is Laura Lairpy of the Lairpy big P ranch," the girl introduced herself, showing up around the ranch, but Ash was too busy checking out ponyta.

_**Ponyta, a fire horse pokémon. Its mane is made of intense flames,"**_

"Isn't it hard to ride one of those with the flames?" I asked curiously.

"Not at all," Laura said as Ash burned his hand trying to pet the pokémon. "Its fires have no effect on those who she trusts,"

"Breeders like pokémon from the big P because of all the work that's put into them," Brock explained. Laura explained to us about the pokémon races the ranch held and it sounded really cool, something I'd like to try out someday. Ash and David apparently agreed with me.

Another stamped ran by, this time the stamped was filled with dodrio's. **Dodrio, **Ash's pokedex stated, **a three headed bird pokémon that can run faster than it can fly. Its three heads represent joy, sorrow, and anger.**

There was a boy about Laura's age sitting on one of them, "And I'm gonna win the race," the boy declared.

"Don't get your hopes up," Laura glared. The boy scoffed, as if she could ever beat him, and road off after his dodrio's.

"And that was…?" I trailed my question off.

"That was Dario," Laura explained. "He's a dodrio trainer,"

It was later that night when the festivities were starting. It was so excited, and almost reminded me of the festivals back home, only with the pokémon. All of us were cheering for Laura to win; I really hope that she would win.

But of course, trouble had to start. Nothing could just go as planned, could it?

David's POV

I was looking forward to the race the next day. A chance to relax in competition, but of course that jerk Dario sent the tauros into a panic and in the ensuing chaos Laura was injured. If memory serves, it was because meowth spooked ponyta into throwing Laura.

[I'm bored!] Lucario complained

[Would you like to carry me in tomorrow's race? I'm sure I can generate a little excitement for you there.] I said with an evil grin. Lucario quickly withdrew his previous statement.

"Hey David, can't you just magic her arm healed?" Dust whispered

"Due to the alignment of the Moon, Sun, and Saturn, I cannot cast any magic for the next eighteen hours." I told her with a straight face. She gave me a questioning look, but bought it.

"You're getting scary good at passing around Tauros flakes." Pikablue quipped

[In truth it is one part laziness and two parts because this is Ash's experience and I don't want to ruin it for him.] I commented as we headed to Laura's cabin. We put Laura's arm in a sling and then she suggested Ash ride ponyta in the race. Ash was weary of being burned, but we encouraged him.

"We'll help you in any way we can." Brock promised

"Including delving into my supply of burn heals." I quipped and Dust smacked me upside the head. It was worth it. Ash then went and touched ponyta's mane and was burned. "Told ya so." I commented as I dug around for a burn heal. I applied it and we went outside to try again after Laura gave ponyta a talking to. Ash managed to get on, but he accidentally spurred ponyta and off he went… holding onto ponyta's tail.

"This could take awhile." Dust sighed and indeed, we trained through the night. As the next day and the race came, everyone was in position. Pikachu was riding squirtle, Pikablue was on luxray, and I was on sceptile. Ash, of course, was on ponyta; Brock was on his onix, Dust was on a sled being pulled by midnight, and Misty was on her starmie.

"Ready!" The announcer shouted as the light turned red, then yellow, and finally green. "GO!" We were all off like shots… except pikachu and squirtle. Dario took an early lead, but everyone was hot on his tail.

"You're not going to stand for this, are you sceptile?" I asked my forest pokémon and he poured on the speed.

"You don't think you can get away from us, do you?!" Luxray shouted as he and pikablue caught up.

"The only reason you're remotely close is because you're only carrying pikablue! If you were carrying David, you'd be in dead last." Sceptile taunted

"Why you..!" Luxray growled, and that's when things started to get a little crazy. I think Team Rocket threw something at the tauros and the ensuing events left both tauros and nidorina out of the race. After that first straightaway, we came to a forty five degree angle uphill climb.

"Come on midnight!" Dust cheered her pokémon, but she was having a little difficulty due to the sled setup. Dario was in front, Luxray and pikablue were still neck and neck with me and sceptile, while pikachu and squirtle were still bringing up the rear. On the downhill portion, the trainer who was rolling on his electrode came barreling down the hill. He had the lead, until he fell into a Rocket Pitfall. Then electrode used explosion. Most of us were clear, but Ash, Dust, a few others and their pokémon got caught up in the blast. Thankfully, pikachu and squirtle were able to give Ash and ponyta as well as Dust and midnight a jump-start.

"This part will be easy as pie!" Sceptile exclaimed as we came to the river. Dario was still in first, but sceptile was able to use his natural tree climbing skills to jump on the rocks with ease. I saw Brock and a trainer with a rhyhorn pull up to the river. Rhyhorn jumped onto one of the rocks and sank. Onix then began to cry. They were out of the race. Dust wasn't able to continue either. Her sled couldn't float.

"HANG TEN!" Pikachu cried as he and squirtle made impressive speed on the river. Misty followed his lead and had starmie get into the water. Ash and ponyta rushed on the rocks like they were on fire… I just made a funny. Next up was a pit stop. We could only continue after our pokémon ate a full bowl of food.

"Don't eat too fast; you're no good to anyone if you've choked to death." I cautioned my pokémon as Dario's dodrio continued to fight over which head would get to eat first.

"Alright Team Rocket, time to go to work!" Dario shouted and after creating a smoke cloud, they sprung from their hiding place and recited that tired old motto. Ash and Misty quickly deduced that it had been Team Rocket behind all the 'accidents'. Team Rocket then took out pikachu, pikablue, luxray, squirtle, and starmie.

"Sceptile, let's go before they pull something else!" I shouted and we took off with Ash hot on our heels… another funny. I really gotta stop that. Anyway, Team Rocket had tried to gas ponyta and as we all know, gas and fire don't mix.

"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!"

Ash and ponyta were really burning up the track and eventually it was the three of us all jostling for position. Then Dario told his dodrio to poke our pokémon's eyes out.

"THAT HURT FEATHER BRAIN!" Sceptile shouted in anger and pain. Ponyta, for his part, had decided that enough was enough and evolved right then and there into rapidash. I muttered a quick cure spell on sceptile and we both caught up to Dario again. In the end, it was rapidash by a nose with Dario in second and me and sceptile were in third.

"You cheater, you interfered with me!" Dario complained

"You're the one who attacked _me_." Ash protested and Dario tried to attack, but rapidash gave Dario what was coming to him, namely, a powerful kick to the Moon. After the awards ceremony, we continued on our way, to the safari zone.

**Me: Another day, another chapter. Sorry it took so long guys!**


	34. A kid living with the Pokemon

When children run free

The world of Pokémon

**Don't forget, 30 reviews gets you a secret chapter!**

David's POV

You wanna know something? Reliving something isn't quite as exciting as nostalgia leads you to believe. I mean, there's a difference between playing super Mario bros. again on the NES after ten years and living out portions of your life again with minor variations only a few months after you get home. Granted, if it wasn't important then I wouldn't be here, but things sure would be nice if Dust would just GET OVER WHATEVER IT IS AND START TRAINING IN THE KEYBLADE! Sorry, I'm rambling. Again. Warning: Extreme boredom can lead to internal monologues.

"Aren't we coming up on Duplica's place?" Pikablue wondered

"In a week or so, yeah. Maybe I'll be able to have some fun," I remarked, that's about when Ash tried to catch the Officer Jenny wielding a Civil War era shot gun with a chansey hat. She then informed us that we were under arrest for pokémon poaching. Is it OK if I quote my brother and suggest signs? No? Okay. Anyway, we were carted off to Officer Jenny's tent and because of the afore mentioned lack of signs, we were let off with a warning.

[And a reminder to _never_ come to the safari zone again, let we get shot at,] Lucario commented, but only so pikablue and I could hear. Then Jenny's alarm went off and Ash volunteered our services. So we were all on our way to wherever the poachers *coughTeamRocketcough* were. When we eventually got there, we saw a heard of kangaskhan right before Team Rocket shot at them with fireworks. The startled heard began to charge… right at us, as per predictability. Thus, Jenny threw the jeep into reverse and put the pedal to the metal.

"THEY ARE CATCHING UP!" Dust screamed right in my ear.

"Someone needs a chill pill." Of course, just when you don't need him, Derek shows up.

"HOW'D YOU GET ON HERE?!" Ash shouted over the stampede. Derek didn't get the chance to answer as we were all nearly thrown from the jeep due to Officer Jenny suddenly swerving. We had gotten out of the way just in time, as that's when Team Rocket caught the kangaskhan in a net. But on the downside, the engine had become overheated.

"Don't you just love the engines of the 90's?" Derek asked

"Just about as much as I love you," Dust grumbled

"Well, standing here isn't going to help anyone, so let's go!" Pikachu cried, but we didn't need to bother as Tarzan Jr. had come to save the day! He freed the kangaskhan and then directed them to attack Team Rocket.

"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!"

"I like that kid's style," Derek quipped

"I wish I had duct tape and bamboo," I remarked

"Why?" Ash asked

"Bamboo torture, why else?" Everyone looked at me funny, but didn't comment on it. "Anyway, why'd that psycho you call 'master' send you this time? To drop tidbits? Or maybe to attack us when we're not looking? Or maybe he's just hoping that your mere presence will drive us to insanity?"

"No. No, but I wish. And that was so funny, I forgot to laugh," Derek answered, "But I'm the bad guy, so you can't take anything I say at face value, can you?" Derek then cackled. Before I could call him out on it, a helicopter landed and out popped Tarzan Jr.'s parents, for want of a better term. We all returned to Jenny's tent and they told us Tommy's story. "And I thought _my_ parents were bad." Derek muttered under his breath.

"We'd be glad to help you find your son!" Ash declared

[Why? So they can do the same thing over again? I'd rather call child protection services,] Lucario quipped, [And even then I'd rather leave him in the care of the kangaskhan. He seems to be doing fine as he is.] Of course, he made sure Tommy's 'parents' couldn't hear him and I was in agreement with the fighting/steel type, but everyone else was all for helping the irresponsible fools who dropped the kid in the first place reclaim the son that was only theirs by flesh and blood. Except for Derek, of course; I didn't know whether to be happy Derek and I agreed on something, or afraid… very afraid.

DUST POV:

These people…who drops their son off a helicopter and just leaves only to come back sometime later. And Derek? He just shows up out of nowhere and that was just creepy. We have been looking for nearly an hour now when I found something, calling the others to me. It was a baby Kangaskhan who seemed to be alone.

I held him in my arms gently, not to scare him while Brock quickly went to work on a medicine. And surprisingly, Derek was helping with the potion. He had to be smart if he was able to make one himself.

"Try this," Derek took the potion and gently squirted the bottle on Kangaskhan's bruised body. He squealed as it stung him, wiggling in my embrace.

"Shhh, it's alright," I tried calming him, gently bouncing him in my arms. There was a rush of air, Midnight barked, then I was covered. David apparently, managed to grab Tommy's boomerang he had thrown at us from one of the trees. How I was covered? Derek had decided to use his body to shielding me and Kangashkan from harm. I blinked surprised.

"You hurt Kangashkan!" Tommy wailed from his branch.

"We did not!" I tried. I did a lot of things but I refused to be accused of hurting another living thing unless they hurt me first.

"Brock and Mewtwo were trying to help the baby Kangaskhan because its hurt," Misty explained. "That is until you threw your boomerang at them. Now apologize," Tomy, or Toho, just stared at them.

"You people or pokemon?" Tommy asked.

"I'm a person you creep!" Misty shouted. I pouted, I don't think I could be called a person anymore. Then we spent the next hour or so trying to explain to Tommy about his parents. It wasn't really going all that well. I'm pretty sure we just confused the kid.

"Roho is a Kangaskhan! Mother is a Kangaskhan!" Tommy kept shouting. Then he got hit over the head with a stick from papa. He did not just do that, some father, hitting his own kid.

"What are you doing papa?" Mama asked surprised.

"He'll be fine," Papa insisted. "We'll take him home and start from scratch," I felt my eye twitch in irritation. Well we know who's not going to win best father of the year.

It wasn't long after that Tommy finally woke up. Apparently, when papa hit Tommy's head, that gave him back all the memories he'd lost in the crash when he fell out the helicopter. The parents were quick to try and take him off.

"And I thought my parents were bad," Derek muttered under his breath. Now that I think about it, I kinda missed my parents. I hope my family was safe back home. That was around the time Officer Jenny showed up. She explained that Kangaskhan was getting poached again. Tommy wasn't going to leave with his second family in danger so he ran off to protect them. We all followed quickly, hoping to do our best to help out the Kangaskhan family.

When we got there, it wasn't that surprising to see it was Team Rocket. I can't help but wonder if they ever thought of quitting because they just happen way too much! Well you can't deny the fact they had determination.

Bulbasaur used vine whip and wrapped around the robot. Squirtle did skull bash while Midnight did tackle. Derek used a pokemon, Jolteon, and combined its attacks with Pikachu and charmander. Toho attacked and hit the gas tank. It went crazy and a nearby helicopter crashed into it, making it explode.

"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!" the three members of team rocket shouted as they were flung into the air and who know where. It didn't matter, we would see them again.

In the end, Tommy's parents decided to stay with him in the jungle and guard the pokemon together. We waved goodbye as we left the jungle to our next big adventure.

Then I noticed something, "Don't you have somewhere to be?!" I demanded irritated.

"Not if you're not there," Derek tried to give me a charming smile. Was it me or was he trying to flirt. David glared and pulled me away but Derek followed us. Looks like he'll be with us on our next adventure. Oh well, can't win them all.


	35. The Bridge Bike Gang

The Bridge Bike Gang:

DUST'S POV:

"It's weird to be back in the city, huh?" Ash asked as we started walking through the streets of a nearby city they were passing through.

"I can second that," I agreed, I thought we'd never stop seeing the endless amount of trees surrounding us.

"It's not too bad," Derek said to my right. Yes, he was still following us. David was on my left and glaring at him. It was obvious the two didn't like each other but at least they weren't fight like half the time they were on the way here. Ok, I admit, the only time they didn't was when they were sleeping.

We were only stopped where we came to a large bridge; it reminded me of the San Frisco Bridge. Of course, I had never seen it in person but I saw it on TV before. This one was much bigger.

"Look at that!" Ash sounded just as amazed.

"Big bridge," Derek muttered. Derek glared and pulled me to the other side of him.

"An amazing bridge," Misty said, awed by it.

"You know, with the bridge here, we could cut a lot of time off our journey, it can take us straight to Sunny Town,"

"At least we can make it fast timing," I grinned excited. Maybe now we can have real food, or a real bed, or a real shower!

"Sorry, but the bridge isn't finished yet," one of the police guards informed us as we made our way over.

"Not finished, our luck sucks," I sighed, everything always seemed to happen to us.

"Can't we just walk across?" Ash asked, just as confused as the rest.

"The bridge is ten miles long," the guard said. "It wouldn't be dark before you get there, but you could always go by bike,"

"Bike?" I asked. I just hoped Misty wouldn't go off on Ash about the bike he destroyed.

"Yes, bike, you know what you ride on to get places," Derek smarted off.

"I know what a bike is!" I snapped.

"But I thought you said the bridge wasn't finished," Misty said confused.

"The road isn't finished, but the bicycle path is!" the guard informed us.

[Or I could call rayquaza out here and we could fly over with the added bonus of scaring the living daylights out of everyone!] David quipped and I shot him a dirty look. Then Misty started ragging on Ash about her bike, just as I feared. So we swung by a bike shop and discovered they were out of our price rage. After that, we decided to go to the pokemon center.

DAVID'S POV:

This might actually prove to be entertaining, going back to see the bridge bike gang. Of course, there was still Derek to put a damper on everything. Eventually, Nurse Joy walked up and asked for our help in getting the medicine to the pokemon center in Sunny Town. Naturally, we accepted and got bikes for the trip.

"We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz!" Pikablue sang.

[Why are you singing that?] Lucario asked.

"Do I need a reason to relive excellent tunes? I mean, me and Pikachipik are pretty much reliving who portions of our lives, so I might as well add in a musical accompaniment," Pikablue reasoned.

"What are you three knuckleheads going on about?" Hope asked.

"Nothing in particular," I answered and we continued biking until those of us with less able bodies required a break. Then, just as we were about to get back underway, the bridge bike gang appeared.

"Oh no, it's a bunch of bad 60's clinches!" I exclaimed in mock horror and then they surrounded us. We kept our cool, for the most part, and they challenged us to a pokemon battle.

"A pokemon battle? I-" Ash started.

"Whoa there cowboy, we want this over sometime today so we can get to Sunny Town. I'll handle it," I said and then the leader sent out of his golem. So many ways to kick his butt, so little time. "Lucario, you're up," I said as he took his place.

"I'll let you have the first move!" the bike leader said.

"Sure thing, that'll just make this all the quicker. Lucario, aura sphere and don't hold back!" I instructed and lucario fired off the attack. Golem tried to withdraw into his rocky shell, but he got blasted sky high. Lucario then caught him on the rebound with an ice punch and then finally batted him away with a bone rush.

[What poor, unfortunate soul wants to be the next victim?] Lucario asked and then a girl sent out a cloyster.

"Come back for now lucario. Pikablue, why don't we enlighten then with our shocking performance?" I asked and that earned me a swift hit in the head from lucario's bone rush and a smack upside from the head from Dust.

"If you're done with the awful puns…" Dust asked.

"I'm done. Pikablue, volt tackle!" I shouted and the attack was successful. We didn't get much further than that, because Jesse and James decided to show up.

"Is there something wrong with wanting to go 24 hours without seeing their ugly mugs?" Dust asked and then Team Rocket told us of their days in the bike gang.

"That's nice and all, but we're kinda in a hurry," Ash grumbled, but he was ignored.

[All in favor of just casting meteor and getting the heck out of here?] Lucaria asked as the bike gang tried to steal our pokemon.

"I see no problem with that. Meteor!" I shouted and scattered the lot of them. We decided to get going while the getting was good.

"So what was that you used back there?" Misty asked.

"My meteor spell, don't leave home without it," I replied and then we all noticed a storm rolling in. Then we felt the storm. I hate getting rained on. Then we came to the part of the bridge that was a drawbridge.

"What are we gonna do?" Misty wondered.

"Are we mice? Or are we men and Pokemorphs?" I shouted.

"I am a mouse. And so are you," Pikablue quipped and I quickly snacked him for it. So we ended up jumping. Dust, Derek, and I made it over with no problem, everyone else needed some assistance, but they got over just fine in the end. After that, we made it to the pokemon center in Sunny Town without any further trouble. The shelder got the medicine and another adventure came to a close.


End file.
